Earlier this month, the servers for Highguard went dark. Now, it looks like the studio behind the ill-fated hero shooter might have quietly followed it into the void.
MP1ST suggests the studio has shut its doors, pointing toward both the studio’s LinkedIn page and official website being taken offline in the last few days. At the time of writing, however, there has been no formal announcement confirming the studio’s fate. Legal documents, however, do seem to indicate the studio is all but shuttered at this point.
Wildlight had already suffered a rough few months prior to Highguard’s shutdown. The free-to-play shooter launched in January and drew a strong early audience, but momentum didn’t last long. Player numbers quickly dwindled and, according to reports, funding partner Tencent pulled support in February, triggering widespread layoffs that reportedly affected the majority of the studio’s roughly 200 staff.
A small team was said to remain behind to support the game in the short term, but that effort didn’t last long. Wildlight announced earlier this month that Highguard would permanently shut down on March 12, taking the game offline less than two months after launch.
Digging into public business records in California sheds a little more light on the situation. Wildlight’s legal entity is registered in Delaware and still appears to be active there, meaning the company technically exists on paper. It has not been dissolved and could be resurrected.
However, its ability to operate in California — where the studio’s Beverly Hills office was located — appears to have been terminated after required filings lapsed. In the image above, taken from the California Secretary of State’s website, it shows the Wildlight Entertainment name reservation as inactive.
In simple terms, that means the company could theoretically still exist legally, but it currently can’t conduct official business in California.
Taken alongside the apparent disappearance of staff and the shutdown of Highguard, the situation paints the picture of a studio that may have effectively closed its doors, even if the paperwork hasn’t fully caught up yet.
For now, though, Wildlight’s fate remains in the realm of “very likely” rather than confirmed fact. If the studio truly has shut down entirely, it would mark a remarkably fast collapse for a developer founded by veterans of Apex Legends and Titanfall, and whose debut project only launched a matter of weeks ago.
Finally, a fun fact: the filings also show that Wildlight began in 2021 under the name of Pantheon Studios, doing business under the name of Novaboss Studios. An official name change to Wildlight Entertainment was filed in 2023.
Source link
