Josh Sobel, one of the lead developers behind Highguard, has come back to social media to share his regret over the statements he made earlier, and his poor handling of the criticism around the multiplayer hero shooter where he blamed gamers, content creators, and online commentators for turning Highguard and its studio “into a joke.”
In a lengthy post on X, Sobel said his post after Wildlight announced layoffs was “not wise.”
Since I reactivated my account, I’ll address the elephant in the room. My now-deleted tweet following the Highguard layoff news a month ago was a mistake. I was stressed, devastated, angry, and running on 2hrs sleep. It was not wise to take my pain to the Internet in that volatile state.
He went on to say that he stands by the intend behind what he said but acknowledged that he phrased it poorly.
I believe the online discourse around Highguard had some very dark corners that may have accelerated the timeline of our failure beyond the natural outcome of reasonable critique, but it wasn’t the primary cause, and I don’t personally believe the ultimate outcome would have been thoroughly different without it. There were a lot of elements involved, and there’s no way to know how it would have gone under different circumstances.
Before and immediately after the release of Highguard the discussion around the game had been extremely negative. Some online commentators went as far as calling it Concord 2. Many agreed that Highguard didn’t deserve the prime slot at The Game Awards, which seems to be the trigger that led to the hate around the shooter.
Highguard failed and many were laid off at the studio. Now we find out that the game is shutting down on March 12. The story of Highguard is a strong case for testing multiplayer hero shooters publicly before launching. I’d even argue that Geoff Keighley’s relentless push for a game that was clearly not ready and not suited for the prime spot at The Game Awards played a role in the negatively surrounding Highguard.
