Baldur's Gate 3 publishing lead says "game development runs on optimism" as the industry comes to Highguard's defense following a messy launch: "It is easy to celebrate failure"

Highguard, the new free-to-play shooter from Wildlight Entertainment, hasn't exactly been in the limelight for a good reason the past few days, racking up "Mostly Negative" reviews on Steam in hours – but fellow developers are stepping up to the plate in the game's defense.

Just yesterday, Baldur's Gate 3 director and Larian Studios lead Swen Vincke said, "I don't like people s***ing on things" as "it's easy to destroy things, it's a lot harder to build them" – a sentiment other devs would apparently likely agree with.

One such dev is Thomas Puha, communications director at Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2. A recent online post from Puha proves as much.

"Tired of seeing headlines of how many players Highguard has lost," he writes, echoing Vincke's sentiment that there's just a tad bit too much negativity in the gaming sphere. "Like, sure, you can argue that's putting facts out there, but I can't escape the feeling there's just this 'celebration' of a game doing badly and just putting out negative headlines for the sake of it. Shouldn't us game devs even try?"

He's not alone, either. In response to Puha, Baldur's Gate 3 publishing director Michael 'Cromwelp' Douse recalls a moment at the DICE Summit.

"I remember standing on stage at DICE *trying* to see eye to eye with an executive audience who didn't - couldn't - figure out what they should be making, or even trying. It is funny in a way that the closer we all got to the audience, the further the industry got from understanding what it should be making," he says.

"Caught in the crossfire of uncertainty are mistakes & the faces behind them. But while they aren't the cause of the mistakes, they are in fact the reason for any successes," continues Douse. "It is easy to celebrate failure because there's security in feeling right, but I hope everyone finds enough to cling onto to break that cycle of cynicism. Game development runs on optimism in contrast with economics."

His words pair well with Vincke and Puha's own – that negativity (or the ability to "destroy things," as the Baldur's Gate 3 boss put it) is easy, but optimism is far more important in the sense of a game's success and its devs' ability to thrive.

As Douse puts it, "If the optimism & enthusiasm disappear at the same rate as the economics shrink, it's gonna get messy." That isn't likely to happen all at once, however.

"Thankfully, there are hyper-engaged audiences and low-cost opportunities all over the place. It's just getting much harder to cut through the noise," as he concludes.

On the bright side, when it comes to Highguard in particular, things might just be looking up – Wildlight has said it's "listening to feedback and working to add some highly requested features" as the first big patch nears. The shooter could just see a bit of a reversal in feedback after all.

It's also important to note that when reviews for Highuard are filtered to only show those who have played more than three hours, the rating actually rises from "Mostly Negative" to "Mostly Positive" – and I'm sure there's something to be said there.

Looking for something to wishlist now? Be sure to browse our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond for fresh titles to anticipate.