In December, The Game Awards ended the 2025 showcase with a reveal of Highguard, an all-new first-person shooter. It prompted a wave of disappointment from gamers eager to see which title would land the prestigious finale spot in one of the most-watched gaming events ever made.
Highguard emerged, with the developers at Wildlight uncovering a confusing, overdone first-person arena shooter, and viewers went nuts, wondering why they’d paid so much to secure the drastically expensive slot. It turns out that Wildlight didn’t pay for that spot in The Game Awards at all.
Half a Million Dollars Saved
In recent years, the cost of acquiring space to run a trailer during The Game Awards has skyrocketed, with the longest slots now having around a half a million dollar price tag.
When Highguard, a brand-new game with no marketing beat before (or since) surfaced in the final spot, viewers were dismayed. There were expectations of something impressive appearing, but Highguard came on screen as a hard-to-pin shooter that looked like many other games we’d already seen emerge (and often fail) in recent years.
It was quickly judged as bizarre, because there was no way this all-new studio would stump up the half a million required to land that final spot, right?
In a new post on social media by Forbes’ Paul Tassi, it was stated that the developers at Wildlight Entertainment did not pay for that spot:
Have learned that Highguard did not actually pay for that Game Awards finale spot. Was just the show putting it there.
In the comments, Tassi’s followers surmised that Geoff Keighley, the host of The Game Awards, was so enamoured by Highguard that he offered the team the final spot. That rings true, given Keighley’s hype for the game in the closing minutes of the show.
However, many were quick to point out that, if anything, the reveal did the game more harm than good. There’s now an emotional angle stifling the game’s anticipation, with folks everywhere wishing something else had popped up at the end of The Game Awards.
Do you think Highguard is going to exceed (low) expectations and surprise everyone when it launches in just nine days? Let us know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Julian Gerighty has stepped down from Massive Entertainment
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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