Entertainment
Alissa McAloon, Editorial Director, GameDeveloper.com
February 11, 2026
1 Min Read
Wildlight Entertainment has reportedly laid off a significant portion of its staff, a move that comes within weeks of the launch of its inaugural game, the free-to-play hero shooter Highguard.
Early reports of layoffs at the studio have started to circulate on LinkedIn, with one impacted developer saying that “most” of the studio’s 100-plus developers have been impacted. Since that post, other developers with previous employment at Wildlight have started to post on LinkedIn in search of work.
“Unfortunately, along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today,” reads a post from a former Wildlight developer. “This one really stings as there was a lot of unreleased content I was really looking forward to that I and others designed for Highguard.”
Game Developer has reached out to Wildlight Entertainment for comment.
The studio itself was set up in 2022 by former Respawn developers Apex Legends design director Jason McCord and COO & Apex GM Dusty Welch. At the time, Wildlight said it was already years into the development of its first title. That game, Highguard, would later be revealed at the 2025 Game Awards and release one month later for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
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The title currently sits with a “Mixed” review score on Steam with around 23,000 reviews, while the third-party tool SteamDB indicates a dwindling player count on PC since release.
Entertainment About the Author
Editorial Director, GameDeveloper.com
As the Editorial Director of Game Developer, Alissa McAloon brings a decade of experience in the video game industry and media. When not working in the world of B2B game journalism, Alissa enjoys spending her time in the worlds of immersive sandbox games or dabbling in the occasional TTRPG.
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Alissa McAloon