HighGuard Ends Prelude: Refunding Players Prior to Shutdown

HighGuard, the free-to-play shooter game, has signaled its shutdown curtains by officially ceasing its services. PlayStation 5 owners started reporting the influx of refunds for particular in-game purchases they can no longer take advantage of.

Discussions on social media stipulate that Sony has started reimbursing players for their microtransaction acquisitions. Several players made these transactions specifically to extend their support to HighGuard and its developers. One user was noted expressing, ‘I honestly didn’t care for a refund.’

There’s a widespread speculation associating Wildlight’s return actions for HighGuard PlayStation 5 players with some undisclosed settlement policy from Sony. However, the scenario about refunds for Xbox or PC gamers remains dubious.

Previously, when the shutdown news was floated, Wildlight was contacted to comment on the refund situation, but to no avail.

Moving away from the return news, recent observations disclose the disappearance of Wildlight’s studio page from LinkedIn, and its registered website has reportedly gone offline. Likewise, the website dedicated to HighGuard is also absent. It’s known that Wildlight faced substantial layoffs in February, retaining only a handful of its personnel to unveil the game’s final update.

There has been a multitude of theories regarding HighGuard’s unsuccessful run. One ex-developer pointed the blame at the negative online conversations around HighGuard, but dismissed it as the principal cause. Another developer speculated the struggle to allure the casual game enthusiasts due to the game’s perceived ‘sweatiness’. Reports also indicate ‘hubris’ as a contributing factor.

There’s a revelation that Tencent, the Chinese internet mammoth, was among the backers of Wildlight and HighGuard. They reportedly withdrew their funding following the game’s unveiling.

Post the announcement of HighGuard’s ceasing, Chad Grenier of Wildlight rationalized that adequate revenue wasn’t being generated to cover the perpetual development costs. He expressed regret, ‘Not enough revenue to keep anyone employed to work on it, unfortunately.’

Ultimately, the game HighGuard had a relatively short lifespan, remaining available and playable for a mere 45 days.