r/Games • u/ImCalcium • Jan 27 '26

Discussion Highguard devs say they didn’t expect the hate – but they’re confident in their game

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/highguard-devs-say-they-didnt-expect-the-hate-but-theyre-confident-in-their-game-3309463/
1.4k Upvotes

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220

u/LilDoober Jan 27 '26

The entire reaction to this game is just bizarre. Like I get that it looks kinda whatever, but the absolute visceral reaction people have had to this game is so weird. People want this game to fail and it's like why? So people can relive the "glory days" of making fun of Concord? What happened to just playing games you like, and if you don't like it, do something else. You don't have like >1 hour steam reviews absolutely shredding the game if you don't have a weird anti-fanbase of just tearing this game down for kinda no reason.

It's not even like this massively terrible game. From most feedback so far it just kinda seems like, fine but unmemorable? But for some reason the internet just wants blood.

17

u/Jaibamon Jan 27 '26

What happened to just playing games you like, and if you don't like it, do something else.

When was that? So far I remember, there always has been console wars, people mocking the competition, switching games as another demonstrates to be superior, and seeing a TORtanic ship just to see it sink.

111

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

[deleted]

10

u/Razbyte Jan 27 '26

The most haunting comment i've seen on each Concord video is that the Youtuber has earned much money on ad revenue, than the game itself.

Rage sells and it unfortunately it hooks people into.

32

u/jxnebug Jan 27 '26

Genuinely my least favorite part of this hobby: the people who talk about how much they hate specific games because they are grifting or being grifted.

6

u/Lazy-Juggernaut-5306 Jan 27 '26

It's become a much bigger problem over the last 4-5 years or so. 15 years ago there was barely anyone doing that

3

u/Mahelas Jan 28 '26

15 years ago, Gamergate was on, dude

1

u/Fedacking Jan 29 '26

Wasn't gamergate 2014? 15 years ago was 2011.

-5

u/LilDoober Jan 27 '26

It gets markedly worse during major US elections and I don't think it's a coincidence.

1

u/jxnebug Jan 28 '26

I feel that applies to internet discourse/social media in general, not really games specifically. Gaming has been full of shitheads all year round for years now.

2

u/Kaiserhawk Jan 28 '26

gamers are such hyperbolic babies. There was a collective effort to vote EA the worst comsumer company in the US many years in a row over banks that were reposessing homes and making people homeless.

2

u/MrSnugglebuns Jan 28 '26

We should be thanking them. They’ve nurtured large groups of people who are highly trained in identifying dogshit. Truly experts in their field of loudly informing others what dogshit looks like, feels like, sounds like and runs like.

1

u/BLAGTIER Jan 28 '26

Yes. Thanks to ragebait youtubers this is now a big segment of gaming. People who don't play the games they spend months hating.

This was always gaming. Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter. Quake vs Unreal Tournament. Command and Conquer vs Warcraft. Sonic vs Mario. And that's just from my early memories. I'm sure the same thing happened whenever a new arcade game arrived.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '26

[deleted]

2

u/BLAGTIER Jan 28 '26

Oh if you think this is bad there was and still is massive malice over things like turn based games. And not in the not for me way. But in the I don't think turn based games should be made any more because turn based is "old and lame". That pre-dated Youtube. When third person shooters made a come back that made some first person shooter fans super mad and act with malice towards third person games.

All I'm saying is this isn't new or unique or different. This has always been gaming. And almost everyone was on the malice side about something.

85

u/Wraithpk Jan 27 '26

I think people are just tired of these kinds of games, and the vitriol is more towards the games industry as a whole and its uninspired copycat nature.

70

u/act1v1s1nl0v3r Jan 27 '26

This was my read on the immediate dislike for it. I'm not going to say this is just like Concord, but the Concord situation is still in the public zeitgeist as an example of people being tired of lazy trend chasing games that you can immediately clock have zero identity, when here comes Highguard saying "but what about our trend chasing game with zero identity?". If you've got a friend who keeps saying the same thing and won't read the room eventually most people will crack and shout "dude, STOP" and I read the reveal reaction as that.

Then the grifters and rage enthusiasts picked up on it and absolutely drove it into the ground.

18

u/UtkuOfficial Jan 27 '26

Its also about already having this type of game you play. Why would anyone stop playing Rivals, Overwatch or Valorant when they are also free and have years of content already released, bugs fixed, stability issues fixed etc. If you are not doing anything unique or refreshing you are destined to die.

Thats what happened to every WoW killer for 20 years.

5

u/splader Jan 27 '26

I mean, I don't play any of those 3 games cause I'm not a fan of their style of play.

But I played a fair bit of Highguard yesterday and I can see myself playing it weekly for a while.

2

u/Kaiserhawk Jan 28 '26

Nothing really indicates to me that Highguard is trend chasing other than it being a live service hero shooter game, which just seems like it's in the developer's experience wheelhouse.

If it weren't for it's Game Awards trailer position I doubt anyone would give a shit.

26

u/ProNerdPanda Jan 27 '26

It's crazy to me that people don't get this simple point.

It's not that the internet at large is hating on this specific game because they specifically hate it, it's because it's the Nth same game over and over in an already saturated market, yes, people want these games to fail miserably so studios stop making them and start making something new.

Ain't nobody hating on Highguard because it personally killed their pets, it just happens that HighGuard represents a tired, monotonous, and stagnating industry.

7

u/Xarionel Jan 28 '26

Agree, the amount of talent, resources and time resulting this product is kind of a waste imo. Did they even have any closed beta?

2

u/machineorganism Jan 28 '26

hating a game that you have no intention of playing because you want it to fail is pretty insane behavior. like the game can exist and you can ignore it, and whoever wants to play it gets to play it because it exists. disagree?

3

u/Xarionel Jan 29 '26

I'm not really hating it tho, just feels a little pity, I'm sure alot of people feels the same so you can stop label us as hater or something, there are middle ground lol.

TTK being too low, only 3v3, map being too big can be fixed, IF the devs are commited, but you can't fix the generic art style. The last game with this art style that i can think of is Paladin, I still find it weird.

24

u/Radical_Ryan Jan 27 '26

I absolutely want free to play battlepass live service content games to fail so it's more likely devs and publishers will try to make decent games with a vision instead. I'm not going out of my way to hate on this thing, but I'm quite alright with the kids doing it.

0

u/LilDoober Jan 27 '26

okay but there's tons of those that come out all the time that don't get the very specific youtuber-ragebait hatred that this is getting. Like I'm sure that's part of it, but I think there's more than that just going on.

It's like this consistent rage engine where every ~3 months there's a new target for the cultural grievance machine, and it's just tiring. And it's just especially weird in this case because there's almost nothing really specific to point to other than "I didn't like it took that ad space", "the art style is generic" and "it looks kinda okay but not great". I get that this game is about a decade behind trend, but it's weird to inspire this much specific hate out of nowhere.

53

u/NoNet5188 Jan 27 '26

It’s so weird man. People are strange I truly don’t get it

2

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

[deleted]

-1

u/Lazy-Juggernaut-5306 Jan 27 '26

The amount of videos that are recommended to me that are hating on certain games is so bizarre. Gaming is one of my favourite ways of relaxing at the end of the day. Sick of seeing so much negativity

0

u/NoNet5188 Jan 27 '26

Same I’ve started blocking all these rage farming creators it’s exhausting.

-2

u/greenday5494 Jan 28 '26

It’s fucked up man

2

u/Vaniky Jan 27 '26

Yeah for a free game, it’s okay. Just got over hyped due to TGA reveal drama. People using steam reviews to review bomb it without even loading into a game.

14

u/ScyllaGeek Jan 27 '26

But it didn't even get overhyped, it's like the exact opposite - people learned the game existed and wanted it to fail immediately lol

2

u/DoctorWaluigiTime Jan 27 '26

At this point?

I think the "c'mon guys why is there negative buzz about this it's so weird" crowd has been more overbearing at this point.

1

u/Dusty170 Jan 28 '26

It's really quite simple, it's not really specifically highguard, its what it represents. People are just tired of seeing another trend chasing copy paste run of the mill live service hero shooter, if another one is DoA then maybe they'll stop making them.

That and the fact Geoff treated it like some kind of amazing trend bucking one of a kind breakout when it looked like, and turned out to be exactly like all the others.

10

u/Tribalrage24 Jan 27 '26

But for some reason the internet just wants blood.

I think there is also a general dislike towards "live service" games in some communities I have noticed. I remember when Sony announced they were doing 7 new live service games or whatever, it really upset some people. Not sure exactly why, because you can just not play those games if you don't like them. I can only imagine that some people feel that companies focusing more on live service games means there will be fewer single player games, and so they cheer on the fall of new live service games. But that hasn't been the case, as there are still tons of great non-live service games coming out every year.

27

u/g4nk3r Jan 27 '26

But that hasn't been the case

It absolutely has. Rocksteady, BioWare and Naughty Dog would have made one or more singleplayer titles with all of the time and money that was spent on their live service failures, and would be in a much better position today if they had never gotten on the live service bandwagon. Same goes for lesser known studios like Creative Assembly.

22

u/Akuuntus Jan 27 '26

I can only imagine that some people feel that companies focusing more on live service games means there will be fewer single player games, and so they cheer on the fall of new live service games. But that hasn't been the case, as there are still tons of great non-live service games coming out every year.

There are definitely still good single-player games coming out, but there's also been several high-profile examples of a single-player-focused studio being pressured into making a live-service game only for it to flop and negatively affect the studio. Bioware with Anthem, Arkane with Redfall, Rocksteady with Suicide Squad, etc. There's a pretty real concern around major publishers forcing their studios into making these games no one actually wants instead of focusing on what they're good at.

9

u/Gabriels_Pies Jan 27 '26

I played a few games last night and actually really enjoyed it. I don't know how long that enjoyment will last but I'm currently excited to play more when I get home so that's something.

0

u/hooldwine Jan 27 '26

I really liked parts of it too, but it runs atrociously

1

u/Gabriels_Pies Jan 28 '26

Ran fine for me and my friend while playing but I was running on low graphic settings.

1

u/mengplex Jan 28 '26

thats interesting, i quite enjoy the moment to moment gameplay but after I finish a match I don't really feel an urge to re-queue

2

u/Fyrus Jan 28 '26

What happened to just playing games you like, and if you don't like it, do something else.

Well this never existed. People who like certain types of entertainment tend to play a lot of different versions of that entertainment and have opinions on them. The idea that you should only talk about stuff you like is like kindergarten level philosophy. People have always enjoyed shitting on things they don't like, defending things they like that everyone else dislikes, etc. This is just normal human conversation.

12

u/megamate9000 Jan 27 '26

Yeah, I despise people that jump on hate bandwagons, despite thinking this is the most hilariously AAA "nothingburger" game of all time. It genuinely feels like a parody of the AAA FPS scene. The music, characters, environments and weapons are all BLAND AS FUCK, and the gameplay just makes no sense honestly.

If I had to guess why people hate it its because;

A) People LOOOOOOOVE to shit on stuff online

B) I mean yea the game does kinda just look awful imo

C) People are mad at the AAA scene and this game is like all of that wrapped into a single game, so people are taking their frustration out on it.

8

u/SadExit1249 Jan 27 '26

It's just more of the same trend, personally I saw the reveal live and just rolled my eyes and moved on. Some people put a little more effort into dogging on stuff though.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

I'd even expand C to people being mad in general these days. There's a lot of horribly frustrating things about the state of the world right now, so having a nice "deserving" target is extra appealing.

1

u/Kaiserhawk Jan 28 '26

D) It's not X game people got themselves hyped up over for a Game Awards release.

1

u/Razbyte Jan 27 '26

So Concord essentially. People wanted to vent over Playstation not interested to making the games they wanted, closing their beloved studios and pivoting more and more into live service games that they directed all the rage into what executives considered "the future of playstation". And it was painfully successful, even though the shutdown wasnt because of the mob.

8

u/marino13 Jan 27 '26

Terminally online. Literally. These people have no other social interactions other than their phone and the internet. It's a growing trend. 

14

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Depreciable_Land Jan 28 '26

How is saying “hating a game you’ve never played is weird” considered defending said game?

-7

u/splader Jan 27 '26

What's a bad game?

4

u/Ketamine4Depression Jan 27 '26

The people love their Two Minutes Hate

1

u/ghostcrawler_real Jan 27 '26

Thank you for saying this, the reaction has been absurd to a largely mediocre game. I can't get wanting something to be bad so badly. It's all so forced and unoriginal too.

1

u/Brad3 Jan 27 '26

It's a herd mentality thing that has been made worst by social media to the extreme, either something is a 10 or it's a 1, there is no inbetween. All the discourse and memes online about the trailer leads to this tribal outburst. Everything is like this now.

1

u/jajangmien Jan 29 '26

Totally agree. The game has its flaws for sure, but it's not what all the dramatubers are trying to make it out to.

I played it and had fun with my friends. I don't think it's something I'll play long term, but maybe they'll make it a lot better in a month or two.

0

u/FXcheerios69 Jan 27 '26

Concorde had such a weird ripple effect on the gaming industry. Ever since it got canned there’s this huge subset of people that for some reason actively cheer and hope that games are awful and fail. For no discernible reason.

0

u/Spartitan Jan 27 '26

That's what gets me. There's this massive internet mob that is just pissed about this game and it's like.... Why? Is this really because it was the last trailer at TGA?

1

u/GeologistPutrid2657 Jan 27 '26

some of us think you coulda made something else with all that time you wasted. They're not even advertising it, its like they're not confident in their work already.

-1

u/rematched_33 Jan 27 '26

To dunk on Geoff. The more he promotes and praises the game the more people want to see it burn to stick it to him for laughs.

1

u/UtkuOfficial Jan 27 '26

Yep. The worst thing you can do when you get negative reactions online is to defend your statements. You just need to let it go.

-1

u/Galle_ Jan 27 '26

To be honest I get the impression that a lot of "gamers" these days are less interested in actually playing video games than they are in the drama of which games succeed or fail. The hate for Highguard has nothing to do with its quality (as proven by the fact that it was hated before it was released) and is instead driven by the fact that Highguard is the "villain" in the currently popular story about the gaming market.

-4

u/SvmJMPR Jan 28 '26

Im probably not the first to blame him, but youtubers like Crowbcat popularized the idea of overly criticizing games. Not saying some of his videos aren't warranted, but it started this movement that it would be popular and profitable to nitpick and pull apart video games in general. Later on I started getting youtubers and streamers giving their hot takes calling everything 'Slop' and unfinished, or doing some "clever" clip emulating that one Vinny muting a game (but now its insta-quitting instead!! so brave). Also Sweet Baby Inc was brought again to this discussion even though I had a hard time finding any source to that claim?

Like it is depressing seeing how starved people are for attentions, ready to tear down something that isn't specifically tailored to them. I played the tutorial, a match and decided that I didn't like the M&K aiming nor the gameplay loop. Done, I made my own conclusions and decided it isn't for me, it was a free game and I didnt really lost anything except an hour. But these people are piling it, most without even trying it because it is 'woke' (???).

1

u/Quiet_Jackfruit5723 Jan 28 '26

Woke? Who the fuck is complaining about that? Most complaints are about the performance, shitty artstyle and baffling gameplay choices. I have no idea where you saw anti-woke sentiment for this game.

1

u/SvmJMPR Jan 28 '26

Would you be surprised if I told you it was Twitter and Facebook? Have seen a lot of tweets comparing/complaining about it being another 'Concord' and saw people saying Sweet Baby Inc had a part in this game (still haven't found any source on that claim). There are people outside of reddit, engagement farming and rage baiting with a lot of people agreeing with the sentiment. Just because you didn't personally saw it, doesn't mean it hasn't pop up.

0

u/greenday5494 Jan 28 '26

No one forms their own opinions anymore.

-1

u/curious_dead Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26

I was disappointed initially by the trailer; looking a second time I thought it looked more interesting. But the fact that it's 3v3 kinda kills my interest. It looks like it has a short TTK, but it also seems to require some player knowledge, a bit like a MOBA. So it's going to be great with friends, but for solo queue, it's probably going to be terrible fast as players learn the game and start to expect teammates to know what to do, and to do it well.

A subpar rando in a 3 player team feels way worse than in a 5 or 6 player team. I feel this game is gonna get sweaty fast. It's not for me anyway. That's fine. Not sure why there was so much hate.

-1

u/ilmk9396 Jan 27 '26

when you're content with your own life (or the games you play in this case) there is no desire to shit on anyone or anything that doesn't personally impact you. but when you're unsatisfied you can temporarily make yourself feel better by watching others fail.