{"id":891964,"date":"2026-02-12T13:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/12\/xbox-fps-highguard-now-has-a-core-group-working-on-it-as-staff-get-laid-off\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:12:17","slug":"xbox-fps-highguard-now-has-a-core-group-working-on-it-as-staff-get-laid-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/12\/xbox-fps-highguard-now-has-a-core-group-working-on-it-as-staff-get-laid-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox FPS Highguard Now Has A &#8216;Core Group&#8217; Working On It As Staff Get Laid Off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Entertainment <\/p>\n<div id=\"body\">\n<article id=\"article\">\n<header>\n<section>\n<p>&#8220;Today we made an incredibly difficult decision&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section>\n<ul>\n<li><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.purexbox.com\/users\/302914\/avatar.jpg?v=1641467957\" width=\"30\" height=\"30\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Entertainment Kezelpaso\"><\/li>\n<li>by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.purexbox.com\/authors\/Kezelpaso\">Ben Kerry<\/a> <span><\/span> <time data-days=\"5\" datetime=\"2026-02-12T11:00:00+00:00\">8 hours ago<\/time><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<\/header>\n<div>\n<section>\n<figure data-uuid=\"d2c9521978507\"><a title=\"Xbox FPS Highguard Now Has A 'Core Group' Working On It As Staff Get Laid Off\" href=\"https:\/\/images.purexbox.com\/d2c9521978507\/xbox-fps-highguard-now-has-a-core-group-working-on-it-as-staff-get-laid-off.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.purexbox.com\/d2c9521978507\/xbox-fps-highguard-now-has-a-core-group-working-on-it-as-staff-get-laid-off.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" alt=\"Entertainment Xbox FPS Highguard Now Has A 'Core Group' Working On It As Staff Get Laid Off\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>The development team behind Xbox FPS <a href=\"http:\/\/www.purexbox.com\/games\/xbox-series-x\/highguard\">Highguard<\/a> \u2014 Wildlight Entertainment \u2014 has today announced that just a &#8220;core group of developers&#8221; are now working on the title following layoffs at the Californian studio.<\/p>\n<p>Following <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/shinobi602\/status\/2021721669392531796?s=20\">initial reports<\/a> from team members who&#8217;d been let go by the company, the Highguard dev posted out to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WildlightEnt\/status\/2021745168387596450?s=20\">social media<\/a> to formally announce the restructure, whilst adding that it was &#8220;proud of the team&#8221; and &#8220;grateful for players who gave the game a shot&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game. We&#8217;re proud of the team, talent, and the product we&#8217;ve created together. We&#8217;re also grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is an unfortunate, if somewhat predictable turn of events for Highguard and the team at Wildlight. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purexbox.com\/features\/opinion-the-game-awards-big-surprise-fell-flat-but-i-have-high-hopes-for-this-new-xbox-fps\">The game was met with a fairly negative reception following its high-profile reveal at The Game Awards 2025<\/a>, and it had been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purexbox.com\/features\/talking-point-do-you-think-the-game-awards-fps-highguard-will-actually-hit-xbox-next-week\">fighting an uphill battle since<\/a>. Recent additions like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purexbox.com\/news\/2026\/01\/highguard-adds-new-5v5-mode-in-latest-update-here-are-the-patch-notes\">a 5v5 mode<\/a> gave the game a boost, but seemingly not enough of one for the team to hold onto the majority of its developers.<\/p>\n<p>As the above statement suggests, Highguard isn&#8217;t dead yet, mind you. Wildlight says it has &#8220;a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game&#8221; in place, so we&#8217;ll just have to wait and see what&#8217;s next for the Xbox Series X|S FPS. The outlook feels a little bleak though, we must admit.<\/p>\n<p><em>Admit it, you saw this one coming, didn&#8217;t you? Talk to us about the future of Highguard &#038; Wildlight Entertainment down below.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>[source <a title=\"External Link: https:\/\/x.com\/WildlightEnt\/status\/2021745168387596450?s=20\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WildlightEnt\/status\/2021745168387596450?s=20\">x.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.purexbox.com\/users\/302914\/avatar.jpg\" width=\"80\" height=\"80\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Entertainment Ben Kerry\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Ben is a News Writer at Pure Xbox, and is a fan of action, racing and straight-up shootin&#8217; in any Xbox game he can get his hands on. When he&#8217;s not clutching an Xbox controller like his life depends on it, Ben spends his time listening to music that&#8217;s far too old for him, watching football on the telly and probably eating somewhere.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.purexbox.com\/authors\/Kezelpaso\"><span><\/span> Author Profile<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a onclick=\"return replyTo('Kezelpaso');\" href=\"http:\/\/www.purexbox.com\/#\"> Reply<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.purexbox.com\/news\/2026\/02\/xbox-fps-highguard-now-has-a-core-group-working-on-it-as-staff-get-laid-off\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Michele Kucera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Today we made an incredibly difficult decision&#8230;&#8221; by Ben Kerry 8 hours ago The development team behind Xbox FPS Highguard \u2014 Wildlight Entertainment \u2014 has today announced that just a &#8220;core group of developers&#8221; are now working on the title following layoffs at the Californian studio. Following initial reports from team members who&#8217;d been let<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":891965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31159,1798,147626],"tags":[5773,147625],"class_list":{"0":"post-891964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-core","8":"category-entertainment","9":"category-highguard","10":"tag-core","11":"tag-highguard"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}