Highguard: Everything We Know

It’s not looking good at all for Highguard, the new hero shooter from the developers of Apex Legends and Titanfall. Ex-Titanfall developers, I should say, if you were expecting the announcement trailer to be Titanfall 3. The trailer looks good and all. Very Apex Legends, if not the spiritual successor to Concord 2. Sony’s cancellation of Concord does bring back sour memories after watching the trailer.

No one’s trying to be Judge, Jury, and Executioner on a game that hasn’t even hit Steam yet or any concurrent gaming stores. But the “New Breed of Shooter” bold statement that came up mid-trailer really threw gamers for a loop. The action revealed in the trailer is nothing new from all we’ve seen from the hero shooter genre so far. But hey, the developers for this one seem pretty confident.

They’ve adopted a shocking marketing strategy, which is to market nothing about the game at all. No dev blogs, gameplay trailers, or demos. Except for the announcement trailer at The Game Awards held on December 11, 2025, and the enthusiastic support of the show’s host, Geoff Keighley, we’re all getting the silent treatment from these guys. 

At the end of the trailer, Geoff Keighley goes on to announce that Highguard will be launching in just seven weeks, on January 26, 2026. It wasn’t surprising when gamers didn’t take this news very well. “Any press is good press,” I suppose, or perhaps not. With just a week to launch day, my stomach is in knots over how Highguard will perform. It’s free-to-play. So, perhaps it might redeem itself and even give us another Apex Legends success story.

But first, let’s iron out a few key details. Here’s everything we know about Highguard.

What is Highguard?

Highguard is an upcoming PvP raid hero first-person shooter game. A lot of moving parts, right there, similar to Apex Legends. You’ll be entering the battlefield alongside other online players, who will mount horses, ride, and fight with you. Players will play the role of Wardens, arcane gunslingers, and, I presume, other classes, as they raid arenas. And their main goal will be to seize control over a mythical continent. And again with the “all-new breed of shooter,” the official website for Highguard highlights in the game’s description. 

Story

Steam’s and the website’s description of the upcoming Highguard is very brief. It highlights very little information about the story, apart from players fighting for control over a mythical continent. 

Gameplay

The same goes for the gameplay, whose details are pretty scarce. All we know is that Highguard will feature online players, taking the role of Wardens. They’ll team up in teams and battle against one another. You’ll challenge rival crews, fighting to take over something called the Shieldbreaker. Then, you’ll break into your rivals’ base of operations, destroying their camp and securing their territory to win the game. 

This all sounds familiar to popular shooter games, which is why it’d have been great for the developers to expound on what exactly will make Highguard the “all-new breed of shooter” to watch out for. Perhaps a gameplay trailer that will dig deeper into the mechanics you can expect. Simply saying “raids” and “hero shooter” isn’t enough to show what will set this new game apart from all we’ve seen before. There are so many questions gamers have around progression, shooter mechanics, game modes, and the monetization scheme. But I guess all of that will have to wait till launch.

Development

And that’s why Highguard’s development has been such a hot topic of conversation these past few weeks. The developers themselves haven’t been saying anything at all to answer concerns about their game. And all the information we have is from Geoff Keighley’s presentation of the announcement trailer at The Game Awards 2025 show. As the final world premiere announcement, he reveals that the game comes from a team of 61 members who worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall. 

Further that the developing and publishing studio, Wildlight Entertainment, was formed four years ago, with the goal of “pushing the shooter genre forward with a new original game.” I’m not sure why the studio chose to develop the game under the radar and only reveal the first look at the final game just seven weeks before launch. The reception thus far has certainly not been great.

Trailer

And for the announcement trailer, and the only marketing video you’ll find of Highguard, revealing the first look at the gameplay. Well, not exactly the gameplay in-game footage, as the video still only highlights cinematic cutscenes and animations. By the end of the video, we’re still not sure how the final game will look and feel. Or what it intends to do differently or innovate to make it the new breed of the hero shooter genre.

Release Date, Platforms, & Editions

Highguard is planned to launch on January 26, 2026. That date is set in stone, with the developers already having a live countdown on their official website. “6 days until launch,” the countdown says at the time of writing, which should get you pretty excited for the upcoming free-to-play.

Platforms are confirmed. So, be sure to dust off your PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC ahead of launch. The Steam page is already up. So, feel free to head on over there and add the game to your wishlist to get notifications when the game is live. PlayStation and Xbox owners, however, will have to wait a little while before they can access their respective stores.

At present, we’ve received no information on any editions that might be available at launch, giving you an upper hand on the battlefield. It’s likely there won’t be any editions, as the game is free-to-play, and the developers will ideally want everyone starting on the same page. But you can always keep an eye out for any changes with development or launch on the official website or the devs’ YouTube or X socials.