Fyreside Newsletter - 3/9/26

Hey Reader,

I am in mourning. One of my favorite video games of the year is being taken offline this week and will no longer be playable. The video game in question is called Highguard and you've probably never heard of it. That's because the absolute piss-poor marketing efforts of the developers killed this game.

I plan on getting back to writing about propaganda in the next few weeks, but I'm taking this brief detour for a teachable moment. I believe you learn a lot more from losing than you do from winning, but you can only learn if you take the time to reflect on the loss. So today, because I only get to play this game I love for 48 more hours, I'm using my platform to dissect what went wrong with Highguard and why it was doomed from the start.

But first, a video!

I made this TikTok a few weeks ago before it was announced that Highguard would be shutting down. Even then, I called a lot of shots that have proved to be true.

Matt | Bahnfyre PR 🔥

My thoughts on Highguard and why I'm so bummed to hear about the layoffs at Wildlight. @Wildlight Entertainment . . . #highguard #contentmarketing #marketingtiktok #digitalmarketinghelp #organicmarketing

♬ original sound - Matt | Bahnfyre PR 🔥

Lesson #1: Make sure people want what you're making.

Highguard was announced at the end of the 2025 Game Awards. If you're unfamiliar, the Game Awards are like the video game Oscars. The final ad slot of the Game Awards is one of the most coveted marketing outlets in the industry. This is the commercial that people watch a 3+ hour event for. It will be the topic of conversation in the gaming sphere for at least a week, likely longer. So, if you're in that slot, you better come out swinging.

The company behind Highguard, Wildlight, did come out swinging. Their initial trailer was cool and the game was scheduled to release less than a month later. Unfortunately, it didn't matter how hard they swung; there was nothing to hit. Wildlight made one of the most common marketing mistakes: they didn't do their market research. (Or maybe they did and just didn't do a good job, idk.)

Highguard's problem at minute one was market saturation. The game was announced as a free-to-play, micro-transaction-driven experience. "Free-to-play, micro-transaction-driven" may be the six most hated words in gaming right now. There is an absolute glut of games in this genre and all of them are fighting for the same audience. Anyone who plays a f2p game will tell you that they don't have the interest, let alone the funds, to support another one. When you use the most coveted ad slot in gaming to announce a game in a genre that folks are already burnt out on, you're setting yourself up to fail.

Lesson #2: Put in the effort to make them understand.

After the Game Awards, it was radio silence from the Wildlight team. You probably don't need me to tell you that this was a dumb call, right?

Look, I get it. When you spend a lot of time and effort putting something together, it hurts when your audience doesn't get it. If your grand announcement falls flat, you realistically have two options. You can either go back to the lab and address everyone's complaints or you can get back out there and keep pushing for acceptance. It's unrealistic to expect a development studio to retool a game that's releasing in less than a month, but it's not unrealistic to expect them to keep marketing that game.

When your biggest roadblock is burn out, you need to prioritize what makes you different. Hit the media circuit and tell everyone you can that your thing is actually new! Don't just sit back and let the narrative bowl you over, because it will. Highguard didn't even have a social media presence until 3 days before launch. That means there was a FULL MONTH without an outlet for the development team to market. Not only that, Highguard's announcement video from the Game Awards was uploaded to their YouTube channel that night. Then they didn't post again until the game came out.

*Insert Tubthumping by Chumbawamba* If you get knocked down, you've got to get back up again.

Lesson #3: Give them a second opinion.

What frustrated me the most about Highguard's marketing was the lack of community engagement. Free-to-play games require an active community to thrive. Other games in the genre like Overwatch, Marvel Rivals and Valorant get a lot of mileage out of platforms like Twitch. These platforms allow content creators to stream themselves playing these games while interacting directly with their viewers. Developers support Twitch streamers in a multitude of ways, including but not limited to saying, "Hey Twitch Streamer, here's some money to play our game and give your thoughts." This was not a priority for the team at Wildlight.

There was effectively zero creator marketing for this game. Outside of initial reviews, there was very little media about the game after its release. They launched their game and then just stopped marketing it. In fact, the Highguard social channels have been dormant for a month. Again, I hope I don't need to tell you how dumb that is.

Your audience may not always trust you as much as they trust a perceived third party. A show of support from someone outside of your organization will likely do more to sway conversions than the strongest internal testimonial. This is not a new concept; it's why spokespeople exist. Why Wildlight didn't prioritize building a community for a game that needed a community to thrive is a question I cannot answer, but I can tell you, without a doubt, it's what killed this game.

Final Thoughts

I'm really sad this game is going away, but that's life. There was a game released in 2024 called Concord that was taken offline 14 days after release for the same reasons. At least we got 45 full days of Highguard, call that a win, I guess.

My personal feelings aside, I hope that we can all learn something from Highguard. You can't just blast something out there because you think it's cool. You can't get scared of initial reactions. You have to foster a community. That's it.

-MC

p.s.

Lots of people poured lots of hours and lost lots of sleep into a game that is going to disappear forever. Physical media is good and effort should be preserved.
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