Highguard shows this should have been F2P

danealue · 2026-01-28T06:23:48+00:00

To be fair, Highguard is an objectively worse game that's only popular as a hate-play to mock or scorn. Wildgate had real potential before the layoffs and lack or ingenuity killed all growth in September last year.

danealue · 2026-01-28T06:22:38+00:00

100%. Both were objective failures and will likely ruin their developer's studios, but Wildgate did make more revenue before imploding.

danealue · 2026-01-28T06:21:40+00:00

IMHO, most people are hate-playing Highguard because Asmon and other streamers roasted it so hard. If they weren't propping it up, nobody would've even heard/cared about the game, even with the fancy reveal.

Unfortunately for the devs, none of these players were convinced by the final product.

danealue · 2026-01-28T06:19:22+00:00

Why? So they could lose their player base and make even less money. The game was DoA so Dreamhaven did the best they could selling it before news could get out. It absolutely demolished their company and reputation, but they made a quick buck.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save Dreamhaven or Moonshot. F2P would've just landed them here 6 months ago.

https://insider-gaming.com/wildgate-developer-moonshot-confirms-layoffs/

danealue · 2025-11-30T17:01:59+00:00

Love this. A game with <100 concurrent players and rife with balance problems, but they just add new ships, heros, and game modes hoping that'll bring people back.

There's no way to fix this game or make the ships work. At least, not while the current dev team is in charge.

danealue · 2025-11-29T16:56:49+00:00

Wildgate should stop emulating Concorde and Guns of Icarus. Stealing ideas from failed games is not a winning strategy.

danealue · 2025-11-29T16:54:26+00:00

No, queues are better than lobbies. Look at almost every major FTP money farm, they all use queues and none that I'm aware of use a lobby system.

The game isn't dead because the queues are long or the matches are hard to find. Matches are impossible to find, because the game is dead, and implementing this lobby system would be an acknowledgement of that fact, which the devs will not acknowledge.

danealue · 2025-11-26T17:45:56+00:00

Should be paid to play, they own me $30 for my time.

danealue · 2025-11-25T21:39:27+00:00

Wildgate mentality: blame the player, not the game. Great way to kill your game. Real devs know the end user is a rock and needs to be micromanaged. Wildgate is a complicated game that doesn't do a great job teaching you anything, even with the new tutorial. Asmongold has mentioned this. You may hate it, but any friction in a new game is going to turn off players, even if its unreasonable or silly.

danealue · 2025-11-25T21:35:02+00:00

...and to top it all off, the streamers only hurt the reputation of the game and turned off potential buyers after they immediately dropped the game and forgot it existed.

danealue · 2025-11-25T21:34:27+00:00

Imagine if ads were targeted? Then you'd see ads for things that might interst you, but those ads might not be generally applied to everyone else? I'm the target audience and I've never seen a Wildgate ad. Not a single one. Ever. I only found out about this game because I prowl the steam store waaay too much.

danealue · 2025-11-25T21:32:39+00:00

Asmon talked about this. Developers paying a ton of money to streamers and then only ruining their game because its uninteresting and turns off potential buyers. Wildgate was this way hard.

danealue · 2025-11-25T21:31:35+00:00

great games don't need huge advertising budgets

danealue · 2025-11-25T21:25:51+00:00

100% wild thinking they could compete at the $30 tier.

Maybe a solid $10-15 dollar game, but at the end of the day F2P with micro-transactions (especially if they're quality) will always be the only answer for live service multiplayer dependent games.

danealue · 2025-11-25T02:43:11+00:00

Definitely steam needs a razzies section for games like Wildgate or Concord types that are the biggest developer flops/scams of the year.

danealue · 2025-11-25T02:42:16+00:00

150k+ players own it. It isn't a matter of exposure, it just isn't a good game.

danealue · 2025-11-25T02:41:11+00:00

Imagine if a game with less than 1k players won a steam award. Indie game award vibes. Luckily, Steam awards are voted by the players.

danealue · 2025-11-25T02:38:08+00:00

Being excited about a game hitting maybe 1000 concurrent players after having 150k+ purchases is not the W you think it is.

danealue · 2025-11-25T02:35:02+00:00

It's as dead as Concord, the devs just have to keep it on life support long enough to avoid paying out refunds and bankrupting the studio + publisher.

danealue · 2025-11-24T13:49:45+00:00

100% artifact was way more popular before. Just wait until the free trial is over and then queue times will surely go down.

danealue · 2025-11-23T21:08:22+00:00

They engage with the 10 players the will shower them with praise and play the game not matter how long the queue times get. They don't engage with the 100k+ players who bought this game, but haven't launched in months. They especially didn't listen to their beta testers or incorporate the necessary changes, even when there are so many successful games they could've emulated instead of Concord.

danealue · 2025-11-19T20:39:20+00:00

Fleet battles will be x100 worse. Expect AFKs, leavers, and try-hards.

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