Highguard may be following in the footsteps of PlayStation’s Concord, as Geoff Keighley’s apology tweet ages poorly
Concord was a multiplayer FPS hero shooter made by Firewalk Studios, set in a sci-fi, futuristic universe where players could choose from a wide variety of characters and engage in fast-paced player-versus-player combat. The game was widely unpopular from the moment gamers heard about it and was shut down two weeks after its initial launch, with the studio following suit soon after. Players often refer to it as the worst video game flop in history. The 26th of January saw the release of a new contender for the title, Highguard.
Geoff Keighley, a Canadian video game journalist and host of a number of video game conferences and presentations, including the Game Awards and Game Trailers TV, presented Highguard as the final ‘big’ reveal at the Game Awards show, from the team that built Apex Legends and Titanfall, Wildlight Entertainment, Inc.’s new game, Highguard.
According to him, the studio planned on “pushing the shooter genre forward, with a new original game.” Right before the launch, he tweeted a meme reading “in 48 hours, I’ll be accepting your apologies.” For context, the tweet was aimed at gamers who had already seen the writing on the wall.
For those wondering, Highguard is a free-to-play hero shooter that sees players go up against each other in 3v3 Paladin-like, MOBA combat. The game launched on Steam on the 26th of January, reaching a commendable peak of 97,249 players, only to quickly plummet. The 24-hour peak currently sits at 12,748, with numbers rapidly falling. Though Concord only reached an all-time high of 697 players, the base game cost $40, whereas Highguard is free-to-play. Players were quick to send in reviews, and currently, the game is rated Mostly Negative with over 28,000 total reviews.
The fans’ concerns range from terrible performance to just a terrible game. “Highguard is another mid-AAA graphic-focused shooter that doesn't know what it's trying to be,” read a review from a player with over 12 hours of gameplay. A common theme in the complaints seems to be the quality of the product itself; while the gameplay has been described as mediocre, the game was teased as something spectacular, with the final spot of the awards going to something big. The same audience, whose expectations for the game were now high, felt betrayed after its release.
Legendary Drops, a popular YouTuber who discusses games and games journalism on his channel, described the presentation as “the most aggressively generic reveal we saw the entire night.” Yet another common complaint is about the characters' mediocre designs. “The character that they led with, honestly, looks like John Video Game, zero identity, zero personality, a lot like the whole game,” he stated, as he began to show comparisons of the Highguard and Concord. “If people don’t want to be the roles in the game, then why would they play the game?” popular YouTuber Asmongold said as he agreed with the similarities shown between Concord and Highguard.
While the weekend will give a better idea of player numbers, hopes are not high. As of writing this, the current player count sits at 7,195. For context, the popular hero-shooter Marvel Rivals' all-time peak was 644,269, achieved a week after release, and currently sits at 80,290.
This does mean that Highguard has, even if compared to Marvel Rival's astronomical launch numbers versus its current player count, an extremely poor retention rate despite being a free-to-play title that has quite a few things in common with the latter, sans the obvious branding advantage. Whether this is a temporary hiccup or a more telling situation remains to be seen, but many feel the writing might be on the wall for this one, especially given the high expectations it shipped with.
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