The final reveal at The Game Awards is usually designed to end the show on a high note. This year, instead of applause, it sparked immediate debate.
A new PvP raid shooter from the developers of Titanfall and Apex Legends should, on paper, sound promising. The reaction following Highguard’s reveal, however, suggests otherwise.
The Early Response To Highguard’s Game Awards Reveal
Right before the Game of the Year Award, The Game Awards dropped their last announcement. Teased as a secret project from developers of Titanfall and Apex Legends, people were expecting more. Instead, the reveal trailer sparked a huge backlash, with the trailer on IGN’s channel receiving as much as 30,000 dislikes. People on social media are already trolling the upcoming game:
“Oh I get it, it’s ‘high’ like ‘over’ and ‘guard’ like ‘watch.’”
"Final reveal of the show is a “servers shut down in 6 months” fps."
"I'm pretty sure this never got leaked because no one gave a s**t lmao."
Beyond the trolling, many people started drawing comparisons to Concord. One of the biggest flaws players point out is that the game looks very generic. While the developer studio Wildlight is teasing Highguard as a revolutionary entry for the shooter genre, players argue that there is not much that actually feels innovative in the trailer. This does not imply that the trailer shows anything meaningful, but simply that what we have seen so far is nothing more than a reveal.
Fans were particularly angered by the fact that Highguard was chosen as the last reveal of The Game Awards. This is the most important reveal slot of the show, and many viewers expect something with major impact. Giving that spot to a generic hero shooter from a completely new studio, whose biggest selling point is that its developers worked on iconic games almost ten years ago, felt disappointing to a lot of people. When you compare that to the idea of a new project from Larian Studios or a spiritual successor to the KOTOR games, the reaction becomes easier to understand.
Too Early For A Verdict
However, appropriate criticism quickly spiraled into final conclusions. Some people now treat Highguard as if its fate has already been decided, despite the fact that we know almost nothing about the game itself. There is no information about the hero roster, the core gameplay mechanics, progression systems, or monetization.
At this point, the backlash becomes less about Highguard and more about a broader frustration with recent shooter releases. Big promises and even bigger budgets have often failed to deliver games that feel genuinely fun or meaningfully different. Concord was the most recent example of that disappointment, and its shadow clearly looms over the reaction to Highguard.
That frustration is understandable. Declaring a game “dead,” however, before a single gameplay trailer has been shown is not. In the end, Highguard will be judged on how it plays and what it brings to the genre. If it fails to deliver on that front, the criticism will be justified. Until then, the final verdict simply has not been earned yet.
What do you think? Dead in six months or potential breakout game? Let us know in the comments!
