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Highguard dev blames content creators for the game's failure - "It was dead on arrival"
- Thread starter IbizaPocholo
- Start date
- Opinion Drama Game Dev
bighugeguns
Member
No mercy
700k views... Youtube is a force of nature.
HeisenbergFX4
Gold Member
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
winjer
Gold Member
Zephyranthes
Member
I haven't played Highguard, but what videos and reviews I've seen suggest that it is an okay-ish game in an oversaturated genre. Which is pretty much the exact impression most people had of what it would be when they saw the Game Awards trailer.
MidGenRefresh
*Refreshes biennially
StreetsofBeige
Member
At least his Linkedin is active. One thing you'll always notice too is that whenever a whiney person says something stupid and work related, they never seem to post it on Linkedin. Always Twitter, Bluesky etc... They got a way of having some awareness not to post it on Linkedin to create drama there. lol
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StreetsofBeige
Member
Lots of issues why it was bad. Endless actually. Even the limited number of reviews on MC are junk. It's in the 60s right with Concord. So not even website reviews pitied them with decent scores.
But gamers still gave it a try. 97k peak Steam CCU + all the other PC gamers trying it at different times + console gamers. Someone estimated it could be a 1M+ who tried it.
It dropped like a rock next day on Steam, which surely meant it did on consoles too. All the streamers badmouthing the game at launch hadnt even got out their videos out yet. Those came later in the week recapping tanking CCU as a post mortem.
If the game was a hit with gamers loving it so it maintained or boosted the CCU, nobody would have a field day making fun.
But what happened was gamers dumped it. Then influencers posting later accelerated its demise. Well, that's how business works. And a product like HG which had zero marketing except one Keighley plug and one launch trailer is a product heavily dependent on word of mouth. They havent even posted anything on their YT account in a week or so. Done.
So if a product is going to ride out word of mouth like the Avon Lady knocking on your door out of nowhere, then you live and die by that marketing.
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Zacfoldor
Gold Member
I think the genre is based on selling skins and if you don't have sexy enough characters the game won't even get to that point.
Like in today's world you can't do this game without crushworthy hot chicks and husbandos.
Look at successful games in the genre and they will all be super horney and get hornier with every other skin drop.
A game in a genre like this will never take off without infatuation and mistique.
It's character based. Characters come first.
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Fake
Member
Plague Doctor
Member
On his place i would just lie i got wrongly accused of some srs crime and spent last 5 years in jail instead, that way he would have higher chance of getting hired for his next job
"So what did you do in this time peroid unaccounted for?"
"I was incarserated for armed robbery. But I am a changed man"
"Thank god. I thought you worked on Condord or Highguard or something"
StreetsofBeige
Member
I'd agree with that assuming the rest of the game is pretty good.
Problem is the game is so lousy in gameplay, content, and performance/netcode, nobody is going to bother sticking around for great looking characters and skins.
Skimming the bad Steam reviews the past few weeks, generic character art being a key negative point isnt even that numerous. Ya, some people bring up generic art, but there's other much bigger issues. Despite the meh characters people still downloaded it to give it chance.
Neon Xenon
Member
Deleting his Twitter account is the smartest thing that Josh Sobel has done with the site. And that's not a shot at the guy. Granted, I can see how he wanted to share his thoughts, but the reality is that people there were not going to be kind to that post.
Twitter is such a cancerous shithole for even any sort of basic talking at this point, much less anything on there that could pass for "discussion".
Twitter is such a cancerous shithole for even any sort of basic talking at this point, much less anything on there that could pass for "discussion".
falconhoof
Member
Hold up. His profile says he was a lead, but he said that High Guard was his first shipped game. There are elements you need when being a lead, and I'd highly suggest that one of them is to have shipped a few games and learned the highs and lows of the experience. The naivety in his post makes much more sense if this was his first title.
Dude needs to learn that you don't land them all, and you sure as shit cannot tell gamers that they're wrong when they don't like your product.
Learn from it, move on, take another swing or bow out gracefully.
Dude needs to learn that you don't land them all, and you sure as shit cannot tell gamers that they're wrong when they don't like your product.
Learn from it, move on, take another swing or bow out gracefully.
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MayauMiao
Member
When the "hate" campaign started, did the dev did anything to mitigate the negative reaction?
Did they release more videos of the gameplay explaining how it will play?
Did they do any sort of public beta test so they could fix what is broken?
Even their own Youtube channel didn't have any updates for 2 months until its unfortunately release date.
Bungie to its credit did fix Marathon, listened to feedback, add proximity voice chat, update graphics, and I'll say it looks much better than before.
StreetsofBeige
Member
Guys like Josh Sobel are cancer for your company.
Not only is this guy reckless saying stupid shit, but the guy even does it when the company he worked for (he got canned) is still operational. Sure, the game is dead and only a skeleton crew is left keeping the game and company afloat the past week. But it's still technically up and running.
So you'd think if anyone is going to say something stupid about a game and it's gamers, at least wait till the plug is pulled completely. Kind of like when there's Q&A and no dev admits something wrong with their game. But 5 years later, maybe the guy admits ya that old game way back had issues. Gripe later, not now.
Imagine having this guy working for your company. Things go sour or you fire the guy. Next thing you know the guy is badmouthing around when your company is still running.
Looking at his Linkedin, he graduated in 2013 and started working right away. So he's not a green grad who doesnt know any better getting their first job out of college. The guy has been working for 13 years. So he's probably about 35-36 years old. Imagine hiring this guy who you expect to be a veteran worker, but acts like a manchild.
Not only is this guy reckless saying stupid shit, but the guy even does it when the company he worked for (he got canned) is still operational. Sure, the game is dead and only a skeleton crew is left keeping the game and company afloat the past week. But it's still technically up and running.
So you'd think if anyone is going to say something stupid about a game and it's gamers, at least wait till the plug is pulled completely. Kind of like when there's Q&A and no dev admits something wrong with their game. But 5 years later, maybe the guy admits ya that old game way back had issues. Gripe later, not now.
Imagine having this guy working for your company. Things go sour or you fire the guy. Next thing you know the guy is badmouthing around when your company is still running.
Looking at his Linkedin, he graduated in 2013 and started working right away. So he's not a green grad who doesnt know any better getting their first job out of college. The guy has been working for 13 years. So he's probably about 35-36 years old. Imagine hiring this guy who you expect to be a veteran worker, but acts like a manchild.
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KanKamAndNob
Member
Lol I notice that too. At least they have enough common sense not to act a fool on the professional siteAt least his Linkedin is active. One thing you'll always notice too is that whenever a whiney person says something stupid and work related, they never seem to post it on Linkedin. Always Twitter, Bluesky etc... They got a way of having some awareness not to post it on Linkedin to create drama there. lol
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
That's the problem with GaaS games, there is no moving on. You have to support a game no-one wants to play or shut up shop because no-one is even going to try your next GaaS game if you immediately abandoned your last one.
StreetsofBeige
Member
You can see why so many devs and studios love GAAS. It's the kind of game (assuming successful) that gives them stability having a job instead of SP focused games where another gig means needing to find another studio or hope the current studio has another project lined up. And management has to start from scratch getting approved funds to make SP game #2.
And GAAS budgets will probably be large since they are the kinds of games that need a lot of money to make and keep going. So it keeps the studio alive where people get paid over many years of dev of high priced offices and people. On the other hand, some studio asking for money to make a small SP or indie game will be offered crapola.
So the hope is if they can cram down their GAAS game down people's throats with everlasting mtx, they can hold onto a job as the whales keep it afloat. And they ride out their GAAS for 10 years.
A lot easier to release some new season content and cosmetics to keep it going than making a brand new game.
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winjer
Gold Member
That is true. But only if the game finds some modicum of success, which is rare.
The reality is that betting on GaaS is like a playing Russian roulette, but 5 chambers are full and only one is empty.
Cyberpunkd
Member
Bingo. But I also have quite a lot of experience and unfortunately junior/senior is not about experience anymore, it's more of a mental state. Some people never grow past that and are never promoted as a result.
saintjules
Member
PatientGamer
Member
When you make GaaS shite fraught with microtransactions and unremarkable content, then you will fail. It's arguably the hardest category of gaming to break through successfully at the moment. Why so many try I don't know... failure rate is like 99%. Why even bother?
KanKamAndNob
Member
It's because of short sighted, quick cash mentality. If you can get lucky, sure you can make much larger amounts of money just making a single player game. The problem with the MP focused casuals is that they've basically settled on their favorite GAAS, whether it be sportsball, GTA Online, COD, Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox, Overwatch, etc. Why would they sacrifice all the time they invested in those games that have been around for years, hell even decades at this point, to waste time and more importantly money on some shitty game like Highguard.
The irony is that single player focused players (at least like myself) are far more willing to give new games a chance because we're not going to be locked into playing literally just one or two games the entire year. I'm constantly interested in new experiences, and if the devs were talented and made a decent single player game out of it, I think it would have stood a better chance. I still think Highguard would have flopped, but at least with a single player game, the insane player count drop wouldn't have hurt them as much because they wouldn't have to pay to maintain all those servers.
MiguelItUp
Member
You'd be surprised how unfortunately common this is. I haven't met many veterans that walked the walk and talked the talk so to speak. A lot of them had an inflated ego, acted like their shit didn't stink, and didn't really do anything of real merit at the time. But you know, their "experience" and "portfolio" were SO impressive, lmao.
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semiconscious
Member
'we made a game just like overwatch, & every bit as good as overwatch, so why doesn't anyone want to play it?'...
when the answer to your question is contained within the question...
TonberrysKnife
Member
Take this with a grain of salt.....if that shit is true man...then it would REALLY explain why Highguard got a free slot at TGA 2025.
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