Highguard, the work of Wildlight Entertainment, was supposed to be such a hit. Announced with pomp at The Game Awards 2025 by Geoff Keighley himself – the host of the gala, who personally announced the trailer and was delighted with it. Keighley even tested the game before its release and devoted a special point to it in “his” event. But the reality turned out to be brutal: premiere in January 2026, peak of 100,000. players on Steam, and then 95 percent drop in just one day, negative reviews and silence.
Now the icing on the cake – the official website of the game, playhighguard.com, simply… went down. Since yesterday, it only displays the logo and the message: “The site is unavailable. Contact [email protected]”. No explanation, no post on Discord or social media. The studio is silent as the grave. This is no coincidence – just a week ago, Wildlight fired most of its 100-plus-person team (including veterans from Respawn), leaving a small team to “maintain the game.”
- Read also: The premiere of the most mysterious game of 2026. Highguard only has two scenarios ahead of it
If the question arises in your mind how a small independent studio was able to support a team of 100 people, this is a good way to question the independence of this team. Such large teams need millions of dollars to operateand the most hit independent productions of recent years (from Expedition 33 to Hades) are usually the work of a dozen or so people who also outsource many tasks. 100 dependents revealed that perhaps Wildlight was not as independent as we expected.
The traces lead to China
This is where Stephen Totilo from Game File comes in and drops a real bombshell: Tencent, the Chinese gaming giant, was behind this “independent” studiowhich was Highguard's main source of funding. The source of these reports is said to be people close to the production itself, and Totilo himself, as a journalist with many years of experience, is not a person whose credibility should be questioned. However, it must be said clearly – this is not official information.
Wildlight has boasted for years that their game is “fully funded,” but has never mentioned the details of that funding. Now we learn from Totilo's information that Tencent, through its TiMi studio (creators of hits such as Honor of Kings and Delta Force), pumped money into the project during four years of development.
Independence in Chinese
Why does this matter? Because For years, Tencent has been searching for studios with potential to earn money for them. A few years ago, Techland from Krakow by Paweł Marchewka, the creator of the hit Dying Light, appeared on their menu. In 2023, Tencent acquired a majority stake for well over a billion dollars, but allowed them to retain their IP and creative freedom. At least officially.
- Read also: “Are you dead?” The Chinese did the unthinkable. They broke the biggest taboo. Censorship acted immediately
It was similar with Wildlight: Highguard pretended to be an independent game, and the Chinese were testing the market in this way. In light of this information, there is even speculation that Highguard's presence on the TGA may have been “bought” – after all Tencent vice president Steven Ma sits on the gala's advisory boardand Keighley has a long-standing relationship with the company. The studio did not plan such a premiere, but took advantage of the opportunity. An opportunity that cost them a great wave of disappointment after building huge expectations around this production.
And today? A closed game site could be a sign that money from China has simply stopped flowing.
What's more, this wouldn't be the first time Tencent had made such a move and had no qualms about shutting down the project overnight. Just remember Battle Aces – a free RTS strategy from Uncapped Games, also created (although officially) under the wings of Tencent. Announced in 2024 at the Summer Game Fest, it entered loudly announced beta tests, the announcements building hype for quick matches lasting 10 minutes. and… flop. Impressions from the tests did not meet expectations and the entire production was thrown out in May 2025, even before the official premiere.
Conclusion? Tencent appears to be quietly subsidizing many Western projects — studios get money for the game, Tencent builds engagement and hype at the biggest events and waits to see how things develop. If the game catches on, they turn it into a money-making machine in the live service model on the Chinese market, where players spend billions. If it flops, they cut funds without blinking an eyethey are followed by layoffs, and the game itself may end up in the trash overnight.
For us, players, this is a warning signal: we are interested in and potentially spending money on an “independent shooter from the West”, and behind the scenes there may be Chinese money with a local agenda. Therefore, it is worth approaching such productions, especially the surprisingly loud ones, with caution, because another Highguard may be lurking around the corner. Their website is down, but the lesson remains.
