Highguard has received its first update, which is now available for download on PC and consoles. The patch doesn't include any balance changes, but it does come with the promise of more comprehensive suggestions. Highguard Updates are on the horizon.
Highguard Announced in The Game Awards 2025 is a new hero shooter. It is the debut title for Wildlight Entertainment, a 61-person studio Titanfall and Apex Legends Giants. The game is built around a three-man squad that competes to replace targets in games that turn into raids. Players choose from a list of heroes — or “wardens,” to use the game's jargon — and fight to control a powerful objective called a Shieldbreaker, which is used to breach the opposing team's defenses and launch a final assault on their base. Highguard Launched on January 26 as a free-to-play title for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
There was a 'one last thing' announcement at the Highguard Game Awards, and it didn't even pay for the spot.
Highgard caused controversy as the final reveal of the 2025 Games Awards, and a new report claims it didn't even pay for the coveted spot.
The first HighGuard update introduces crash fixes
Less than a day later Highguardthe game received its first-ever client-side update. No official patch notes were published by Wildlight, the developer only said the revision addresses “various stability issues”, i.e., fixes some crashes. On consoles, the patch is labeled as build version 1.002.000. The PC update is around 18GB in size, effectively requiring players to reinstall the entire game.
Highguard Devs promise more updates coming soon
The first update announcement came with a promise that the developer is working hard to deliver more improvements. “We continue to investigate the issues and expect more patches to be available throughout the week,” Wildlight said in a prepared statement. Based on normal live-service development cycles, bug fixes are probably the only thing players can expect over the next several days, as more extensive changes like balancing tweaks need extra time to finalize. A new client update arrived shortly after Highguard Steam got a lot of attention, peaking at over 97,200 concurrent players on Valve's storefront.
We continue to investigate the issues and expect more patches to be released throughout the week.
Based on 24-hour activity data, Highguard Ranked as the 16th most played game on Steam as of January 27. The hero shooter did not appear on the US top 20 lists on the PlayStation or Xbox stores, which offer relative rankings but do not disclose player numbers. on Steam, Highguard Holding a 31.12% positive review rating as of early morning hours (ET) on January 27, Valve classified the response as “mostly negative”. Reviewers have cited a range of issues from audio and technical issues HighguardAn aggressive kernel-level anti-cheat system for broader concerns about structure and pacing.
Some early adopters on Steam have described firefights as the most effective and well-executed aspect. HighguardArguing that such encounters are rare. Instead, the fight is spread around collecting chests and resources and waiting for the Shieldbreaker to spawn. These periods of downtime have led some players to speculate that Highguard May have originally been conceived as a different type of game before moving to its current 3v3 format. Some fans suggest that the experience could benefit from a more traditional deathmatch approach, without the layers of extra mechanics that weaken the fires. While others argue that simply increasing the team size could improve the pacing, the maps feel too large for matches limited to two three-player teams.
The first HighGuard content update is coming in February 2026
Unlike the balance changes, overhauling the core gameplay loop to address concerns about activity distribution would be a significantly larger undertaking for Wildlight Entertainment. There is currently no indication that the California-based developer is considering such a revision. The studio recently shared a 12-month roadmap for its free-to-play hero shooter, with the first major content update—dubbed “Episode 2″—scheduled to be released in two parts between February and March 2026. Part 1 will introduce new playable Wardens, mounts, and maps, as well as a full range of models. Part 2, planned for March, is set to provide new printing tools and base types.
- issued
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January 26, 2026
- developer(s)
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Wildlight Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
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Wildlight Entertainment
- Multiplayer
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Online multiplayer
- Cross-platform play
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complete

