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The Game Awards capped off their trailers with a surprise announcement – a completely new game from a new studio.
What is Highguard?
Highguard has this description on its Steam page:
From the creators of Apex Legends and Titanfall, comes Highguard: a PvP raid shooter where players will ride, fight, and raid as Wardens, arcane gunslingers sent to fight for control of a mythical continent.
Battle rival Warden crews for possession of the Shieldbreaker, then break into and destroy the enemy base to secure territory in this all-new breed of shooter.
The game is scheduled to release on January 27, 2026, and is being developed and published by Wildlight Entertainment.
What Is Wildlight Entertainment?
Wildlight Entertainment announced themselves to their world back in February 2023. Interestingly, they characterize themselves primarily as a remote work game studio. When they launched they had offices in LA and Seattle.
Many of the staff come from Respawn Entertainment, but they are not exclusively from the studio. Their team page lists members who did not come from Apex Legends and worked on other games.
There are some staff from NetherRealm Studios, Blizzard, Call of Duty, Riot Games, etc. We even found guy from XDefiant.
The founders have experience in both Activision and Respawn. Dusty Welch, the CEO, was once SVP and head of publishing at Activision. He was general manager of Guitar Hero and helped launch the Call of Duty franchise.
Chad Grenier was originally a modder who made his way as a developer on Call of Duty. He moved to Respawn in 2010 to help launch the original Titanfall. He also led Apex Legends.
It goes without saying that this is an experienced team. While three years may be too short a time to launch a game, they may have been working on the game for longer.
Is There Still Room In The Live Service Space For Highguard?
Of course, there are plenty of studios trying to find new inroads in the live service space. While there’s a lot of money in this side of the gaming market, it’s also a risky proposition.
The giants of live service, such as Fortnite and Roblox, thrive on being built in such a way that they convince players to stay loyal. On top of that, live service players are largely fickle.
Wildlight may still be holding onto their cards and there’s something else about Highguard that will make it unique and novel enough to bring players in. Or maybe Highguard can thrive on just offering a superior experience.
For now, you can watch the Highguard announcement trailer below.
