Players were not enthusiastic about the announcement of the new PvP shooter from the former developers of Apex Legends and Titanfall.
Highguard, a new PvP shooter from Wildlight Entertainment, founded by former developers of Apex Legends and Titanfall, faced a sharp negative reaction immediately after its announcement at The Game Awards. Almost all published trailers show a dislike-to-like ratio in favor of the former, often by a factor of ten.
The official video on The Game Awards channel has garnered about 7,200 dislikes with 737 likes at the time of publication. A re-upload of the trailer from IGN shows 21,000 dislikes versus 2,500 likes. A similar picture is observed on other channels, which indicates the mass sentiment of the audience.
Much of the negativity is related to the context of the showing. Highguard became the final "world premiere" of the ceremony — a slot from which viewers traditionally expect big surprises. Instead of a continuation of well-known franchises or an unexpected return of beloved series, the show ended with a showing of another free-to-play PvP shooter, albeit created by an experienced team.
A separate role was played by the dissatisfaction of Titanfall fans, who continue to wait for the third part. For them, Highguard looks not like a spiritual successor, but like another project distracting former developers from the "real" sequel.
Nevertheless, despite the stream of videos with titles in the spirit of "dead on arrival", it is too early to draw final conclusions. Perhaps the game will be able to catch on with the audience by offering interesting mechanics. It will be possible to find out soon — the release will take place on January 26, 2026 on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.
The video is available at the following link.
