According to several reports, Highguard players are now receiving refunds for in-game purchases following the game’s delisting and end of service. Several players have taken to social media to report receiving refunds for Highguard Gold on BlueSky and ResetEra, with some receiving full refunds. It is worth noting that these refunds are being issued through PlayStation. A Polish BlueSky user, Cal, also reported receiving a refund from PlayStation without submitting a request. “It looks like Sony is issuing refunds for Highguard microtransactions on its own initiative,” they wrote (via machine translation). “I didn’t submit any requests or anything, but 59 PLN landed in my account today. Pretty nice of them!”
Earlier this month, developer Wildlight Entertainment announced that its free-to-play shooter Highguard will end service and shut down on March 12. This comes just 45 days after its launch on January 26. The developer cited not being able to “build a sustainable player base to support the game long term” as the reason. For now, Highguard remains available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam.
In a recent report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, citing employees at the studio, Wildlight Entertainment was revealed to be “out of money” during a February 11 meeting with leadership, despite recently having what was described as sufficient “financial runway”. The report states that Tencent, believed to have been a secret financial backer of the studio, pulled its funding due to Highguard’s low player retention and overall poor commercial performance. It also claims that fewer than 20 developers remain on the project. According to Schreier’s sources, some developers who left the claimed “hubris” in how leadership handled the title. For now, Wildlight Entertainment continues to support Highguard with updates.
Wildlight Entertainment announced last month that it laid off several staff members while retaining “a core group” of employees, just two weeks after the launch of Highguard. Former level designer Alex Graner posted on LinkedIn that he was laid off along with “most of the team at Wildlight.”
