Former Highguard Developer Strikes Back Against “False Assumptions” And Being Turned Into “Free Ragebait Content”

A Highguard developer has hit out on the game’s critics a day after he was laid off.

Josh Sobel, a technical artist at Wildlight Entertainment, wrote a nearly 1,000 word post about his feelings after joining the layoffs. Notably, he does not blame his former studio.

In Sobel’s words:

We were turned into a joke from minute one, largely due to false assumptions about a million-dollar ad placement, which even prominent journalists soon began to state as fact.

Within minutes, it was decided: this game was dead on arrival, and creators now had free ragebait content for a month.

Sobel clearly stated he was not commenting on Highguard’s trailer, marketing, or launch. Instead, he pointed out the incentive for content creators to make negative leaning content, and the dogpiling he received directly on his personal social media.

He ends by pointing out that their zero AI, zero corporate oversight game deserved the “bare minimum of not having our downfall be gleefully manifested.”

Sobel’s post comes in the third year of an ongoing wave of studio layoffs and closures. It should be sobering to gamers and games media that we’re reminded we can amplify that wave too.