In a new post written since returning to social media, Josh Sobel, a former tech artist at Wildlight and a part of the Highguard development team, reflected on some knee-jerk comments he made as the game utterly imploded. Weeks ago, he stressed that it was ‘downhill since the trailer was posted’, addressing the disastrous reveal made at The Game Awards.
In his newest post, he has stood by his words but suggested that he was ‘stressed, devastated, angry, and running on two hours sleep’, which led to him being a bit more inflammatory than he perhaps endeavoured. He has, however, stated that the online discourse may have accelerated the game’s failure.
But It’s Not The Only Thing Wrong with Highguard
Josh Sobel’s original comments have since been deleted, but we covered them back in February nonetheless. Sobel was hit by the first wave of layoffs that struck Wildlight Entertainment in the weeks after the game’s launch, but before the company revealed the imminent shutdown of the ‘new breed of shooter.’
He has now explained:
I stand by the intent behind much of what I said, but I phrased it poorly, and some of my anger was misdirected. I believe the online discourse around Highguard had some very dark corners that may have accelerated the timeline of our failure beyond the natural outcome of reasonable critique, but it wasn’t the primary cause, and I don’t personally believe the ultimate outcome would have been thoroughly different without it.
There were a lot of elements involved, and there’s no way to know how it would have gone under different circumstances.
It’s a refreshing take, and it’s one provided by the closest source possible to the game itself. It’s no big secret that folks were willing to write Highguard off from the moment it was revealed, simply because of how it was revealed, in the closing moments of The Game Awards.
Folks were eager to see the game plummet to spite Geoff Keighley and his cabal, and things went from bad to worse from the moment the game was unveiled.
It’s a similar story to Marathon, which has launched to a lukewarm reception, not helped by a slew of gamers willing it to fail just because that seems to be the ‘in’ thing these days.
Highguard failed for several reasons, but the discourse around it and its becoming a laughing stock of the industry certainly didn’t help to a vast majority. It became the trend to bag on it, for a while.
Did you enjoy Highguard? Let us know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that a LEGO PlayStation set could be coming this year
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.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
