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[Ziglax]

The reveal trailer looked like shit which means there was a 95% chance of the game being shit (which it was) so I'm not really sure why they're surprised by the reception. They put an even bigger target on their back by being the final reveal of The Game Awards so they should except the stronger blow-back.

I threw up in my mouth a little when I saw that trailer. It summed up everything that has gone wrong in the games industry: a generic multiplayer shooter, a generic setting, generic art, generic everything. It is probably the product of AI slop and PowerPoint dashboard design.

 

[SHAKEZ]

Ironic, the content they created just wasn't that great, so I do agree. Content creators are the problem.

 

[Generic]

He's right.

 

[Avid Reading Horse]

The content creator/VGA stuff likely just helped speedrun what was going to happen regardless.

 

[Odinnii]

I remember looking at all the Game awards trailers a few hours after the show ended and the Highguard trailer had almost 90% downvotes on IGN's YT with around 80k veiws.

Everyone hated this dogshit game even before any youtubers made content on it.

 

[Interfectum]

Bottom line: They enjoyed the smell of their own farts and was shocked when people said it smelled like shit.

 

[T-0800]

I didn't even finish the mandatory tutorial. It should never be mandatory. I just wanted to jump into a game and check it out and if it grabbed my attention and I felt I needed to I would have returned to the tutorial. Old games didn't force you to read the instruction manual before you were allowed to insert the cartridge.

 

[Toots]

According to Sobel, the period leading up to The Game Awards 2025 was one of the most exciting times of his life.

Huge "i'll be voted prom queen even tho no one likes me at school" vibes from this poor soul.

 

[Felessan]

I thought that it's part of a job to work with content providers for spotlight of the game

But given how things went (no community testing, almost shadowdrop, no work with content creators) - they really understood nothing about live service games

 

[falling into hell]

After more than two years of work on Highguard, the team believed they had something special.

Lol that is what they always think I'm special and every thing I do is wonderful. Too bad bro but the people who played your game didn't think so.

Sobel also claimed he received heavy backlash on social media, due to which he had to make his account private to protect his mental health.

If you actually made a better game you wouldn't need to do that. It's funny these people always have some mental problems if people state opinions they don't like to hear.

 

[Bert Big Balls]

Highguard dev blames content creators for the game's failure - "It was dead on arrival"

Highguard turned out to be a failure for Wildlight Entertainment, and according to the former Lead Tech Artist at Wildlight, the game was labeled a failure before it ever had a fair chance.

www.notebookcheck.net

Bro that's a lot of words. End of the day, your game sucked. The trailer was overhyped and the game didn't look good enough for people to get excited. Of course the numbers were going to be good initially because the game was free, but it soon became apparent that all those youtubers were right the whole time. It's not their fault your game bombed. You just didn't make an appealing enough game. End of story.

 

[NuclearDiarrhea]

When games like Ghost of Yotei don't bomb, these blue haired devs and retard journos like to brag and use it as proof that content creators (specifically ragebaiters) don't have any actual influence and that their views don't align with real gamers, but as soon as a game like HighGuard shits the bed they soon like to blame content creators when its convenient for them to do so all to avoid accountability.

 

[bighugeguns]

When games like Ghost of Yotei don't bomb, these blue haired devs and retard journos like to brag and use it as proof that content creators (specifically ragebaiters) don't have any actual influence and that their views don't align with real gamers but as soon as a game like HighGuard shits the bed they soon like to blame content creators when its convenient for them to do so all to avoid accountability.

I think Ghost of Yotei generated more ragebait money than Sony actually made.

Wonder if some internal people got cut into some of that sweet action.

 

[darrylgorn]

 

[Kokoloko85]

Tbh "content creators" are just becoming sensationalists and worst then media itself.
Peoppe do make way more effort to try and kill a game

 

[GHG]

This is an interesting take from math teacher (and GPU reviewer):



Looks like investors does't give a fuck, they throw shit (invest in games) on the wall and hope that some of it sticks (Fortnite level of success). In the meantime developers of those games are fucked...

Yep, it's been apparent for a while now:

News  Post in thread 'Remedy Entertainment CEO Tero Virtala steps down'

Oct 22, 2025

Someone has to pay for the Firebreak mega bomba.
Seriously gaas titles shouldn't even be greenlit if you can't financially sustain the possibility of a complete failure.
The Max Payne remake might save them.

When it comes to GAAS, for some reason there's very much an "all or nothing" mentality when it comes to publishers/studios in terms of how they approach it from an accounting perspective.

The allure of potentially making Fortnite money means all logic and reason goes out the window.

• GHG

• 

The devs that make all the failures are just collateral damage to them.

 

[Bert Big Balls]

When games like Ghost of Yotei don't bomb, these blue haired devs and retard journos like to brag and use it as proof that content creators (specifically ragebaiters) don't have any actual influence and that their views don't align with real gamers but as soon as a game like HighGuard shits the bed they soon like to blame content creators when its convenient for them to do so all to avoid accountability.

Yup. End of the day, if the game is good, it doesn't matter what backlash it gets. The game usually speaks for itself.

 

[Esquie]

Everything he's saying is spot on. There's a massive social media ragebait problem with games coverage today. If you can't see this, you've probably been baited by it. Highguard had no chance.

Although not a total failure due to how big the IP is, Black Ops 7 is a good recent example of this. It's objectively the best COD multiplayer and zombies in quite a few years, and those two modes are 99% of the playtime for 99% of people. However, the campaign was goofy. It was mediocre and had a giant Michael Rooker boss and weird monsters. Even though it's a tiny, borderline irrelevant part of the game considering 99% of the playtime is in MP and zombies, the social media ragebait machine used it for countless videos and clips for clicks and labeled the overall game terrible. Every discussion of the game online sounded like people were reading a script with how often the same phrases were being used to describe it, which they got from those clickbait videos from their favorite influencers. Vast majority of these people hadn't even played it.

Highguard got buried in the same way, except it was taken to the extreme. Was the game actually good? No, not really, but the insane amount of social media brainrot hate it instantly received was disproportionate to the game's quality. It had no chance whatsoever.

There are lots of games that have overcome "negative content creators" so I think it's bullshit to blame other people. Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky had sort of an uphill battle and passed with flying colors eventually because of the efforts made by the teams.

No there really hasn't been a lot of games that have overcome it, not to this extent, and those two aren't good examples for a number of reasons. NMS came out 10 years ago — this influencer ragebait culture wasn't as prevalent, TikTok didn't even exist back then. CP77 was a massive game that sold like 10 million right off the bat, the situations were different.

 

[ZehDon]

No, I dubbed it "Concord 2" when I the saw trailer. Then I came to GAF, and we all had basically the same initial impression. That's not our fault - that's the Dev's fault for not reading the room.

 

[nemiroff]

That's what the urinalist/reactor ecosystem is about, he's not all wrong. Also, Geoff created the start of the perfect storm.

 

[Fake]

You could also blame Geoff.

 

[Emmy Ator Best]

We were doing so good sniffing each other farts in our echo chamber. How dare you slapping us in the face with reality!

 

[Revolutionary]

 

[Sohurmk833]

Everything he's saying is spot on. There's a massive social media ragebait problem with games coverage today. If you can't see this, you've probably been baited by it. Highguard had no chance.

No there isn't. Nobody ist forced to watch this ragebait and no company is forced to give them ammunition.

 

[Signalis]

Highguard dev blames content creators for the game's failure - "It was dead on arrival"

Highguard turned out to be a failure for Wildlight Entertainment, and according to the former Lead Tech Artist at Wildlight, the game was labeled a failure before it ever had a fair chance.

www.notebookcheck.net

Men_in_Boxes please explain

 

[Bernardougf]

Toxic positivity culture with zero accountability keeps killing western studios.

 

[Clear]

No there isn't. Nobody ist forced to watch this ragebait and no company is forced to give them ammunition.

I wouldn't place the blame solely on content creators but if you think they cannot seriously hurt a release, you're either a fool or a liar. Their power comes from the ability to inflict reputational damage.

Combined with a soft-launch, its the sort of one-two combination that can kill a game before the devs have chance to respond.

Also in this case, the viciousness with which it was attacked pre-launch simply due to where the reveal trailer was shown (the "one more thing..." spot was wildly unfair.

 

[bighugeguns]

Now that I think about it, Highguard probably generated a shitload of ragebait money, makes me wonder who their investors were, and in what else they're invested in...

Imagine you literally built products as ragebait and also bought into the instruments to capitalize on that, that would be genius.

 

[Salz01]

That Hunters gathering game is probably next….that game seems to have a worse reaction than this.

 

[Sohurmk833]

I wouldn't place the blame solely on content creators but if you think they cannot seriously hurt a release, you're either a fool or a liar. Their power comes from the ability to inflict reputational damage.

Combined with a soft-launch, its the sort of one-two combination that can kill a game before the devs have chance to respond.

Also in this case, the viciousness with which it was attacked pre-launch simply due to where the reveal trailer was shown (the "one more thing..." spot was wildly unfair.

The only reason these ragebaiters exist in the first place is that companies have pissed off people to the point that they're actively routing for said companie's products to fail. Nobody but themselves to blame.

 

[diffusionx]

Eh lots of people tried it day one, if they made an awesome game it wouldn't have mattered what anyone said. They didn't.

 

[xanaum]

 

[Dyno98]

I agree that after so many Live Service Games failing (with some that I, myself, loved, like Lawbreakers and Gundam Evolution) and people growing tired of constant monetization and greed, gamers in general have become meaner. Yes, we gloat a little when a game we don't personally like fails. It's sometimes fun to be mean.

However, these lines are inexcusable:
"Everyone I knew who had any connection to the team or project had the same sentiments:
"This is lightning in a bottle.""I trust this team wholeheartedly.""If there's one project nobody in the industry is worried will fail, it's yours.""This has mainstream hit written all over it.""There's no way this will flop.""I could play this game all day.""

It shows that you surrounded yourself with yes-men and toxic positivity. If they really thought like that, they DESERVED to fail.

 

[Durin]

Again, dumb cope-filled dev that wants to blame content creators for mind-controlling the audience, even though that game was being dunked on right in the live chat for the event by random people.

The reason many content creators making negative content about these titles get views, is they reinforce opinions people already have, not create them.

 

[Saber]

Aaaaand the lack of accontability phase begins.

 

[VGA-Games]

It's somehow always the Fault of the Gamers.

I can obviously only talk for myself, but if I like a Video Game than I play it, it doesn't matter for me what others Think, especially what others Think on YouTube!!!

And if I don't like a certain Video Game, than I don't play that Video Game, but not because of what others Think about the Video Game, I don't play it then because I don't like the Video Game!!!

 

[Clear]

The only reason these ragebaiters exist in the first place is that companies have pissed off people to the point that they're actively routing for said companie's products to fail. Nobody but themselves to blame.

So you think that any single company deserves to be held responsible for the "sins" of an entire industry ?

As usual emotional thinking is being exploited here because its easily monetizable by amoral hucksters in social media.

 

[Randall365]

No, I dubbed it "Concord 2" when I the saw trailer. Then I came to GAF, and we all had basically the same initial impression. That's not our fault - that's the Dev's fault for not reading the room.

I am not sure, but certain genres just don't seem to lend themselves to all the woke bullshit. First person shooters are one of those.

 

[Laptop1991]

The fact that these Dev's can't see or admit why their games fail, is why the sales are tanking for a lot of genres and games like his failure, they are not good enough games that gamers want to buy rent and play!, but keep blaming Youtube content creators, that'll fix it.

 

[dreamstation]

There are lots of content creators on here it seems. He's not wrong. Bandwagon jumping is the in thing this generation.

 

[icecold1983]

Ha. "Emotionally draining." "Autism." No wonder your game sucked.

 

[Gubaldo]

 

[Kokoloko85]

No there isn't. Nobody ist forced to watch this ragebait and no company is forced to give them ammunition.

When its everywhere from youtube to instagram within minutes, its hard not to see it. Its just becomes another forcing a narrative into peoples faces

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Lol at the people saying this poor sod is right.
Type "Mario Kart World sucks" in the YT search bar and see how many results come up.
Funny how that negativity didn't impact sales of MK World that much, eh?

You made a game people didn't want to stick with. Happened to the best devs out there. Suck it up and do better. Stop blaming other people.

 

[Kokoloko85]

There are lots of content creators on here it seems. He's not wrong. Bandwagon jumping is the in thing this generation.

Yep.
Humans cant let go of tribal attention seeking and bullying mentality. It presents itself like this lol

 

[Dr.Morris79]

It's true.

I was interested, until I saw it was shit

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Everything he's saying is spot on. There's a massive social media ragebait problem with games coverage today. If you can't see this, you've probably been baited by it. Highguard had no chance.

Saying that a videogame that was given the fucking spotlight of the Game Awards had "no chance" is obscene, mon ami. The only reason why they blew it is because their game sucked. Should the game be interesting people would have gone weeee instead of woooo.

Was the game actually good? No,

Here's the answer. The only one that matters.

No there really hasn't been a lot of games that have overcome it, not to this extent, and those two aren't good examples for a number of reasons. NMS came out 10 years ago — this influencer ragebait culture wasn't as prevalent, TikTok didn't even exist back then. CP77 was a massive game that sold like 10 million right off the bat, the situations were different.

NMS had an opposing trend MUCH WORSE than this or Concord. The studio was accused of straight up scam with personal attacks to the director. In the end, it's up to them to get over this situation. This studio just took the money, developed a poor product with no potential audience and pulled the plug. Disgraceful.

 

[phant0m]

He's not entirely wrong, but also this:

The only thing I agree on is that negative content and drama have a lot more traction online than positive ones, so creators are a lot more inclined to generate drama.

Said that, if the game was any good, it would had chance to redeem itself when released, but instead it confirmed all the negativity around it.

Publishers also pull the plug wicked fast, which isn't the fault of the devs nor content creators. I said it in the other thread, I believe both this and Concord could have been successful and found audiences if they had been stuck with for at least a year of fixes and content updates. But nowadays it's blow up in the first 2 weeks or you get taken behind the shed

 

[bighugeguns]

Removed my empathy reactions, I officially don't trust any of this bullshit.

 

[PeteBull]

That highguard dev literally though in his dreams he is like that:

But reality refused to change: