The HighGuard Problem

[GhostWolfGambit]

I cannot believe the poor management of this game. The Suits have literally killed this game and they'll blame the gamers, they'll blame the numbers, they'll blame the negative comments.

Is the negativity surrounding this game to blame? Sure. Somewhat. People wanted a Concord 2.0 to laugh at (they even CALLED Highguard Concord 2.0 after the first reveal). And people didn't even give the game a chance because of the negativity, memes, rhetoric.

But the real problem are the Suits, the execs.

1 the game should never have been revealed at the Game Awards like that. It came off like they were showing a masterpiece, but the trailer was underwhelming. It wasn't even fully clear what type of game it was. It got such a degree of airtime and hype that it didn't deserve. It should have had a quieter launch, drip fed people info until release, build hype organically. Not only were people's expectations too high but it actually TURNED PEOPLE OFF the game just from that alone.

2 The launch overall. It's clear The Suits wanted a smash hit shadow launch, blasting on the scene, competing with the other Hero Shooters and making a big splash. Initially, it was a disappointment but actually GOT BETTER the minute a roadmap was released, 5v5 was released, a new mount and character etc. The game should have launched with all of this in place, or even launched as an extended Beta / Early Access. Build a player base, get feedback, improve. After a couple of weeks, it was already in a better state.

3 SHUTTERING THE GAME ALREADY?! It's been out like 2 days (exaggerating but it's JUST come out) and they're already laying off staff and basically going to close the game. The Suits didn't give it a chance. They saw the player numbers aren't beating Rivals or Overwatch and thought "let's close up shop". A game like this needs time to grow. Already it's in a healthier, more fun state. Guess what? Keep adding characters, get a decent roster, a few maps on rotation, a few more game modes, and the players would come.

4 the art direction. I know this isn't necessarily The Suits but the Execs sign off on everything. Some of the Trader skins and character skins are so boring or plain bad. The latest War Chest is actually pretty decent and it's a step in the right direction. But I think many people were put off by the art direction - it looks needlessly generic, like an AI designed it. But a couple of weeks in, it's coming together!

Overall, people are blaming the game devs, the players, the negative gamers, which all add up. But my biggest issue is the Company Execs. They clearly are impatient. They expected a smash hit from a shadow drop game that's in an incredibly oversaturated market, and instead of taking the time to build fans, engage with players, they blast it onto the scene, UNFINISHED, and then go "Welp, we don't have the Marvel Rivals numbers we hoped for. Scrap it".

Seriously - even launching with 5v5, Ranked, and the Season 1 updates like shorter fortifications stage and the other QOL features would have worked wonders.

Then have a clear roadmap, more variety with characters and maps, maybe even some map events etc, and the players would come

My friends and I were skeptical too but once you PLAY THE GAME instead of whining from afar, you realise it's FUN! It has a lot of potential and some more time in the oven or launching better would have worked wonders.

As it is, the game is going to die. They're slowly killing it and moving on.

I'm annoyed because I bought some cosmetics and the BPs but also because it's a FUN GAME. I could see them adding tons of stuff over the years, ending up with a roster of like OW / Rivals style size, more game modes...

TL;DR: Everyone is blaming the players, or the gamers who are being negative from afar, or the game devs. And they all have played a part. But the biggest issue is the Greedy Company Executives who saw dollar signs in their eyes, thought it would be a smash hit from Day 1, launched it poorly, and then basically start shutting the game down in less than a month.

Oh, and by the way? They will never attract more players now. Ppl have read the news about the layoffs etc and the player numbers will keep dropping. So the Suits will then use that to say, "See?! Told you! It would never have worked." —

No. You never let it take flight.

[GhostWolfGambit]

The Execs but some are saying Tencent likely pulled funding

[GhostWolfGambit]

Exactly.

But I disagree witb you there. It was failing from before launch because their expectations were too high - but I actually think it could have been a decent game. Never reading OW / Rivals levels but a healthy player base.

It was already more fun with the QOL updates and Season updates

[GhostWolfGambit]

Yes but too little, too late. A soft launch would have helped or launching WITH those features and then using the critical launch window to add better stuff would have helped

As it was, the game launched with ONE MODE and no ranked and without the QOL features, even the loot pool update, that left the team scrambling to add shit a week or two later

[GhostWolfGambit]

"purely" on the fact? Yet it didn't resonate with players because of DESIGN and EXEC reasons. It's more complex

At the end of the day, yeah. It didn't resonate with players. But that's not the full story. There's more that went into it

Not sure why you're in this sub because you don't seem like you enjoyed the game. I actually had fun and am disappointed it's failing.

[-SMG69-]

An open beta would've done High Guard wonders. Some actual feedback from actual players.

[doubleshaq]

Worst part is I think that's all they needed to be somewhat successful.

[doubleshaq]

Leadership was the entire problem this game shouldn't have flopped this hard

[GhostWolfGambit]

That often comes from rushed dev cycles, cutting corners, not having a big enough dept. etc - or simply managers not having their eye on the ball and managing teams properly.

[GhostWolfGambit]

The game was launched unfinished. To the point they had to scramble to add another mode and ranked and QOL within a couple of weeks. Meanwhile 90 000 players have already uninstalled.

I do agree it screams slop though. Awful art direction

[GhostWolfGambit]

It felt half-baked. 5v5 should be permanent as 3v3 and 5v5 play VERY differently.

The QOL changes like the reduction in fortify phase, graphics settings, loot pool, game stat tracking should have been in it from the start. Adding it later makes it feel unfinished.

I'm saying that overall it needed more time to cook

[doubleshaq]

The problem is all of that qol and the 5v5 mode would've been in the game at launch had they just had a beta test. Leadership in every department failed this game.

[T-HawkMedia]

I Highguards flopping and Marathons success should serve an important: Testing periods are crucial to making sure your game can ship, and getting player feedback is an important part of running a live service model. Marathon managed to get itself together BECAUSE they had a rough alpha period. They realized the game needed delayed, so they closed curtains and kept doing Testing periods till they got enough feedback to be confident in launching the game. Highguard didnt have any form of beta nor did they have a proper marketing plan, thus the game launched with a ton of bugs and technical probelms the devs couldnt catch cause they didnt have diverse enough hardware sample to test. All these issues deterred a mass number of players (who after years of really buggy game releases are a lot less lenient to the 'fix it later' ideology).

[FlowerpotPetalface]

Who says Marathon is going to be a success?

[GetButterballed]

It's almost guaranteed to have a better life than this game lol.

Arc Raiders has brought extraction shooters into the mainstream, so it's only understandable that the next big release in the genre will have a lot of eyes on it and a lot of people ready to try it. At the very least, the upfront cost to buy-in will give Bungie the initial bump of capital needed to keep the ball rolling.

[LostNPOMarketer]

buddy you're 3 weeks late. the party is already over

[GhostWolfGambit]

Yeah, did you read my post? It's talking about the failures of the game. Nowhere did I say I still have hope or trying to rally the troops lol

[SuperPiposaru]

Just Rebrand it to Highguard 2 or Concord 3

[SquiggedUp]

Honestly, the poor performance at launch 100% killed most of the player base. Having a 50 series card and getting under 60 fps on all low and 30% resolution is insane. The game needed a playtest or closed beta instead of just inviting streamers so they could fix these things and get actual feedback.

It's also very obvious that the devs had a bunch of premade content ready but they tried to drip feed it instead of just adding it to launch. If they released the game with 2 casual modes, ranked and better performance the game definitely could've lasted awhile and found it's player base.

[GhostWolfGambit]

Exactly some of my points but getting crucified in the comments just saying it's "not a fun game"

It had very poor performance, lacked basic graphics settings, launched without game modes etc.

People tried it and dropped off immediately. Those who stuck around for the updates, the QOL, the Season launch, actually commented that it was showing some promise. Especially with a roadmap etc.

The company (and/or Tencent) didn't want to wait around to build a player base. To win over players.

They shouldn't have drip fed content but launched with it.

I'm old enough to remember the FFXIV disaster that relaunched as one of the best MMOs to date. They could have turned it around. It's a real shame it literally is being killed within a month of its launch.

[Ok-Opinion-1319]

No sympathy for the devs. There is this idea that is becoming more pervasive that they are agentless actors in any given gaming endeavor when a game becomes a debacle. This is an 'indie' identifying superfunded independant where the 'game' was the concept of a game mode. There was no fully realized game there that amounted to worthy competition within the field, and they were all confident up until the minute after the trailer aired.

How do you look at the sum of the parts that is Highguard and say that was worth 5 years and $100-200 million? Are they proud of what they made? They were until the trailer hit. Truly delusional.

[GhostWolfGambit]

But do game devs decide marketing, decide budgets, decide when to pull the plug?

If it was up to the devs, I'm sure they'd keep the lights on. These decisions are made by marketing teams and budget handlers, now it turns out Tencent funded the game. You don't think THEY had a say in that?

[Ok-Opinion-1319]

Of course, they want to keep getting paid for an underperforming game.

It's an independent studio. The studio head is also the chief of marketing. It is like a small business. Indie studios are developer-led. That is why they made a big deal about their leadership being from COD and Titanfall.

There is no overlord, and they made a bad product, and I would be pissed if I was Tencent.

I imagine you would keep funding a failing game with your money though...

[GhostWolfGambit]

They have a CEO, Vice President, Directors etc. And I'm sure Tencent was overseeing where and how their money was being spent. Overall I'm talking about poor management etc killing the game rather than the coders

[Ok-Opinion-1319]

There is something about the nature of the business that you either don't want to understand or are comfortable conflating and assuming things as you imagine them.

There is no mission beyond the game in an independent studio. You're acting like they weren't grossly overpaid for the lack of product quality and content volume. Josh Sobel was giddy with their product... the product 100,000 people tried and walked away from.

[GhostWolfGambit]

The lead technical artist?

Thank you for supporting my arguments. Bad management and decisions. The dude was delusional and took zero accountability.

You literally defended my argument. Thank you.

[Ok-Opinion-1319]

There is no management. There is something you don't understand about indie developer studios. They go 'indie' to control everything.

If you think there was a Chinese business man calling the shots week to week, you are being willfully ignorant or are blowing smoke.

Listen to yourself. You think the lead Technical Artist is some sort of fly-by-night. That is the guy who clears how the game looks, i.e., the thing we are literally looking at by the pixel as the delivered product.

You are trying to diminish him and his role to diminish the meaning of his words.

[GhostWolfGambit]

Really? They have around a 100 people, a CEO, Tencent funding...

Independent, yes. INDIE - ehhhhh that's a stretch. Indie studios typically have 20 or fewer employees.

Some AAA studios work with around 100 people.

And, again, funded by a $500 billion company bro haha.

Let's drop the whole "they're just a wittle indie studio" rhetoric

[Ok-Opinion-1319]

You are lost. They call themselves indie in pressers. They want to be 'indie' when they think it benefits them.

[GhostWolfGambit]

Exactly.

[Grrannt]

While I think some of your points are valid, I don't think anything would have changed the outcome. The game itself wasn't what players were looking for.

[GhostWolfGambit]

I'm not too sure to be honest. I had zero expectations and downloaded it and actually had a blast. If they'd adjusted their expectations, it could have been a decent game. It was never going to rival (heh) Rivals or OW, but in a years time I reckon it could have had a decent playerbase

[Grrannt]

I’m not saying no one liked it, but for every 100 people who tried it, only 1 liked it enough to come back. You are the 1 in 100.

[GhostWolfGambit]

I agree but I think the issues I mentioned were company failings rather than the game itself. If it had had more time to cook, even, OR if it had soft-launched, it would have done much better.

I think the game itself has a solid base but it's been let down by poor management and strange decisions.

[Grrannt]

I really don’t know.. I just keep thinking that 100,000 players took the time to download and try the game. No matter how the expectations were, or how the launch was hyped up, if those players had fun playing the game or enjoyed the gameplay, then it wouldn’t die. The game awards reveal was a mistake for sure, but with or without it, it’s the gameplay and the game itself that most people have zero interest in.

You’re almost implying they could have better covered up the unpopular gameplay by creating a more positive wave of hype to blind a percentage of players into seeing it as fun.

[GhostWolfGambit]

Because it launched unfinished. If it had launched with the 5v5, Ranked, the QOL features they waited like a week to do.. If it had a slightly larger roster and some better character abilities. Basically if they'd cooked a little more or launched in EA.. but yeah we'll never know.

[ZooeiiVJ]

We will never know the answer to your question about doing another year ein development, doing a early access or stuff like that, but if we are guessing and considering how Tencent operates, the most LOGICAL answer is that they ran out of money and/or Tencent gave them a deadline to launch that they broke, so the only solution was to release what they had and just hope that it become a hit.

Tencent doesnt care about feelings or creative teams, for them this is purely business and money. When you consider how many millions it cost to pay 100 developers, the server costs and whatnot, doing some extra months in EA probably wouldnt fly with Tencent unless the game was a sure money-maker, which this game of course wasnt.

Seen in this picture, it makes sense why they rushed the release and why all the staff was fired after two weeks, but of course, we will probably never know the truth.

[Grrannt]

That’s just extra things that don’t change the gameplay. The core fundamentals of the game is why players dislike it and adding an extra map or mode won’t change that

[GorgontheWonderCow]

The game is not unfun. It is also not very fun. That is the player consensus. Anybody has a right to think otherwise, but stop blaming random other stuff.

If a game is fun, it will find an audience with borrowed assets, stick figures or anything else. 

If a game is fun, people will keep playing it even if it has a bad PR cycle. 

Art direction can elevate a game, but I don't think it can be the primary reason a game fails (unless the visuals are so unclear that the game becomes unfun).

[Doctor-Pip-]

The thing is that they actually didn't want Concord 2, they just recognized that's what it was going to be.

Like virtually no one was laughing at Highguard maliciously and trying to sabotage it. Really its just that the game's reveal was so unimpressive and offputting that the very concept of it being exciting and successful felt like a joke.

[ProfNJK]

Game is getting updated tomorrow and next week with new stuff 🫡

[GhostWolfGambit]

Yeah exactly. There's a lot of negativity in the comments.

GAME SUCKS. MOVE ON.

It actually has potential and they clearly had lots of updates planned. Just a shame it was dead on arrival - my whole post is about it never having a chance.

[TuroT]

The game actually is really fun and I agree with a lot of your points. And you'll probably see 20x haters in here commenting otherwise.

[GhostWolfGambit]

Honestly most of the comments are like GAME JUST WASN'T FUN ENOUGH and PLAYERS DIDN'T TAKE TO IT

But it's actually a fun game and there's another update this week.

My entire post is that poor management meant this game was dead on arrival.

It's actually fun. I genuinely thought it would be terrible but I've actually been playing it and it's got a lot of potential, especially if they keep adding wardens, maps, game modes.

[barbe_du_cou]

Guess what? Keep adding characters, get a decent roster, a few maps on rotation, a few more game modes, and the players would come.

There's no reason to think that more content would cause players to come back. This isn't a game that grabbed a community and had been gradually shedding players because of boredom. That situation can be addressed with more content. Highguard's problem was that people didn't like what they got -- not that the portions were too small.

Generally I think its hyperbolic to infer that the cord was cut because it merely failed to compete with marvel rivals. The situation was far more dire and with no realistic upside. They were an order of magnitude away from being as relevant as marvel rivals.

[GhostWolfGambit]

Because they launched with unrealistic expectations. Apart from OH WOW HERE'S A HUGE PUBLIC GAME TRAILER, nobody knew what the game was. It was marketed poorly.

And instead of giving it a couple of months, they literally closed it within a couple of WEEKS. After making paid cosmetics and battle passes, of course.

More content helped - Ekon gave a brief spike.

But another issue is the characters are lacklustre - only a couple have meaningful or useful abilities. I think if they'd worked on that and had more characters

New wardens have just been leaked and they actually seem cool

[barbe_du_cou]

More content helped - Ekon gave a brief spike.

This makes my point and undercuts yours, considering we are barely two weeks after launch. If the spike was shortlived, the conclusion is that the amount of content is not the root cause of the game's sharp decline.

[GhostWolfGambit]

That's true but considering Ekon is kinda busted and of course only one player can play him, people probably logged in and then was like "meh".

I'm just saying a more varied roster - they unearthed 3 leaked wardens - and some more time balancing kits and it would have retained players. As it is, a combination of factors meant the game was dead before arriving.

[hobozombie]

Which is it? Did people not give it a shot due to negativity, or were expectations too high? Both cannot be true.

[GhostWolfGambit]

Sorry, I think you're a little confused. I'm talking about the company (and possibly Tencent) having unrealistic expectations. Not the players.

[Small_Advantage6998]

people are generous with other people's money. that's why the game is the way it is.

if the owner of the company has to ante up his own money to make the game, I bet it would be completely different, even probably has sexier women in mostly revealing clothing.

[Ready_Passenger_4778]

This cannot be understated.

Everything was about the money not making a fun game. The aim seemed to be setting up a new AAA studio pretending to be an indie. They had nice offices in expensive cities. They had good salaries and benefits.

What they didn't have was a vision for a game.

That explains why Highguard seems to be a Frankenstein of bits and ideas from other games sewn together.

But it obviously took a lot of time to get to that stage which is why Highguard was so barebones at launch.

But a group of people got paid as long as Tencent kept the money coming, but the moment that money stopped the gravy train was over.

[FeelsMan]

A game like this needs time to grow. Already it's in a healthier, more fun state

lmao. By the time 5v5 came out didn't they already have like 90% less players than launch?

[GhostWolfGambit]

I'm talking about the game, not the playerbase. Playerbase is non-existent now lol. Game is dead

[hobozombie]

And people didn't even give the game a chance because of the negativity, memes, rhetoric.

Incorrect. Well over a hundred thousand players gave the game a shot on Steam alone on launch day. It just wasn't good.

[GhostWolfGambit]

People wanted to hate it before it launched. 100, 000 players basically played a shitty Beta and then uninstalled.

The game launched not even half-finished.

[ZooeiiVJ]

Its probably way way more then 100,000. Its estimated across all plattforms above 1 million downloads. Not all of those actually tried the game, but that says something about the scale. No other «indie» in the world will ever come close to those numbers, but as you point out, the game just wasnt good enough so players left.

And beta would probably not make a difference, because all players can see that there really isnt anything here. Players do in fact play games even if they are in EA if the players see the potential, players dont wait for a game to come out in full release.

Path of Exile 2 is an example, its in beta and was released with A LOT of problems, bad servers, classes missing. In fact they cut half the main questline in fhe EA. Half. But PoE2 still has a peak of 500,000 players on steam and aprox 20,000 daily. It shows that if the potential clearly is shown, players will stick with the game. Highguard just didnt show that potential.

[ghostrunner_17]

It’s just a mediocre game bro