"Last week, recently laid off Highguard developer Josh Sobel opened up about what it felt like revealing the game at the Game Awards 2025 and then watching some of the loudest parts of the internet dunk on the game up through its January launch. One of the things he called out was people "gleefully" trying to manifest the online hero shooter's immediate downfall."
"The post kicked off a fresh firestorm from a diffuse mob of angry online gamers and social media clout chasers who used the message to attack Highguard's developers as out of touch. They were accused of trying to deflect blame for making a game that just didn't connect with many players. As happened with Concord before it, some people started looking for any post by anybody who worked on Highguard that they could find to start dunking on the person and the game."
Josh Sobel, a recently laid-off Highguard developer, described revealing Highguard at the Game Awards 2025 and then witnessing loud online criticism through the game's January launch. He identified users who "gleefully" tried to manifest the hero shooter's immediate downfall and said negative discourse played a role in the product's struggles. The response triggered a broad online firestorm of gamers and social-media clout chasers attacking developers and accusing them of deflecting responsibility. Some users searched public posts by Highguard staff to ridicule them. Ampere Analysis estimated 1.54 million people played Highguard last month.
Read at Kotaku
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