{"id":517645,"date":"2026-03-11T19:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/517645\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T19:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:41:11","slug":"highguard-dev-who-deleted-his-socials-is-back-voices-regrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/517645\/","title":{"rendered":"Highguard Dev Who Deleted His Socials Is Back, Voices Regrets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Highguard, released on January 26, 2026. It officially goes offline tomorrow<\/a>, just 45 days later, on March 12, 2026. In the brief time between, it has been the subject of infinite discourse, the dissections of its failure<\/a> occurring before it had even lost its new-game smell. Non-players, for some reason jubilant to see the 3v3 live-service hero shooter fail, looked for anyone to trample in their stampede, including former Wildlight developer Josh Sobel who dared to call out their behavior<\/a>. Sobel deactivated his X account soon after<\/a>, but has now reactivated it and published an explanation.<\/p>\n

Josh Sobel, one of many people at Wildlight who lost their jobs in the aftermath of\u00a0Highguard\u2018s release, posted to X a since-deleted piece about his personal experiences from the ill-fated reveal at the Game Awards<\/a>, through the abuse he received on his socials, to the role he believed the hostile audience played in the game\u2019s failure. (You can read the full text here<\/a>.) \u201cI\u2019m not saying our failure is purely the fault of gamer culture and that the game would have thrived without the negative discourse,\u201d Sobel wrote February 12, \u201cbut it absolutely played a role.\u201d Standing up for his colleagues, and expressing pride in their work, the post received the expected levels of irony. Those so mortally offended at the suggestion that their hostile behavior might have a negative impact launched an onslaught of hostility, causing Sobel to deactivate his account.<\/p>\n

Aware that a deactivated X account gets deleted after a month, Sobel has now brought his back to life, and addressed what he calls \u201cthe elephant in the room.\u201d Calling his deleted post a \u201cmistake,\u201d he explains that \u201cI was stressed, devastated, angry, and running on 2hrs sleep. It was not wise to take my pain to the internet in that volatile state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since I reactivated my account, I\u2019ll address the elephant in the room. My now-deleted tweet following the Highguard layoff news a month ago was a mistake. I was stressed, devastated, angry, and running on 2hrs sleep. It was not wise to take my pain to the Internet in that\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/oWPIIPWqin<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Josh Sobel (@Joshiepoo25) March 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

While standing behind his intent, the technical artist says he \u201cphrased it poorly, and some of my anger was misdirected.\u201d Sobel re-acknowledges that \u201cvery dark corners\u201d of the online discourse could have \u201caccelerated the timeline of our failure,\u201d but despite never having said so in his original post, adds \u201cbut it wasn\u2019t the primary cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of elements involved,\u201d he says, \u201cand there\u2019s no way to know how it would have gone under different circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

This whole situation is so galling, given Sobel\u2019s original complaints were recognizing the grim negativity and abuse he and his colleagues had faced as a result of a concerted campaign of hate against a game, long before anyone had played it, then suggesting this could have played a part in hurting the game\u2019s chances. Usually, such \u201cvery dark corners\u201d of the internet boast with utter glee when they perceive their campaigns as having hurt a game, delighted to recognize the power \u201cgamers\u201d have over the fate of releases, so his being targeted for agreeing (no matter how inaccurately) is wild. As it happens, Highguard likely saw around 1.5 million people<\/a> play in its opening days, with a peak concurrent audience of around 100,000, but those people did not come back, suggesting it just wasn\u2019t a game people wanted to play. But there\u2019s little room for doubt that the intense levels of vitriol targeted at the project colored the experience, and at the very least didn\u2019t help. It was pre-determined to be the \u201cnext Concord,\u201d long before anyone had tried it, and that takes its toll.<\/p>\n

Quite why anyone would restore an X account at this point is mysterious, but Sobel says it\u2019s he values the connections he\u2019s made on it. Thankfully he\u2019s set his replies to followers only.<\/p>\n