New fantasy FPS Highguard has a full year of post-launch content "deep in development," split up into episodes to counteract "live-service fatigue": "We're building a game that people want to come back to"

Highguard screenshots
(Image credit: Wildlight Entertainment)

After closing out The Game Awards last year and a slightly scant marketing campaign since, Highguard is now available on Steam. The fantasy FPS managed to attract nearly 100,000 players on launch, and the devs at Wildlight Entertainment have a solid 12-month roadmap in place for updates.

The team speaks about its plans in a showcase video to mark the shooter’s release. "We knew when we started that we wanted to make a shooter, and we knew that we wanted to make something that was live-service," Jason Torfin, VP of product and publishing and game writer, says.

Highguard | Official Launch Showcase - YouTube Highguard | Official Launch Showcase - YouTube
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"There's a lot of live-service fatigue," Carlos Pineda, lead designer, states. "These games tend to hit you with a FOMO, which I think players have gotten wise to. We’re building a game that people want to come back to."

Torfin then outlines the release strategy. It's all separated into episodes, each lasting two months and consisting of two halves. The first episode is specially packaged to flesh out what’s already there, providing five maps, eight wardens, and 10 weapons. Don't expect the rest to match those numbers, but they'll each have their own particular reasons to boot up.

Time is the great decider for releases like Highguard, but Wildlight has the right idea in many respects. If you'd like to try it, you can find it on Valve's marketplace now.

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Anthony McGlynn
Contributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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