That team-based shooter with phantom horses that debuted at The Game Awards and then promptly disappeared is not actually dead: A showcase featuring ‘gameplay deep dive, year one plans, and much more’ is coming next week

After weeks of determined, frankly kinda weird silence, the Highguard machine has suddenly sputtered to life to promise that all will be revealed on January 26—which, for the record, remains Highguard’s release date.

“Tune in on Monday, January 26, at 10am PT for the Highguard Launch Showcase,” Wildlight wrote today on X. “Here, we’ll share an in-depth look at Highguard direct from the studio, featuring a full gameplay deep dive, year one plans, and much more.”

Highguard’s been a strange one. It appeared out of nowhere in the coveted one more thing slot at The Game Awards 2025 with a trailer that, being blunt, did not knock my socks off. I was far from the only one who felt that way: The general consensus in the immediate aftermath of the show seemed to be, “Why was that the final reveal?”

It was afterwards that things got weird, though. Instead of following up with a better look at the game, or even just a vague promise that it’ll be good, developer Wildlight Entertainment went stone silent. And stayed that way: Even the Highguard Steam page remains a barebones shell with nothing more than system requirements and a two-line description of the game, unchanged from when it was first revealed.

(Image credit: Wildlight Entertainment (Twitter))

That led to some high-strung speculation that mistakes had been made: One popular theory was that the unexpectedly cold reaction to the trailer had developers scrambling, and the planned launch date was sure to be pushed back as a result. But just like the rest of the Steam store page, the launch date never changed: Even as redditors theorized and guessed and reminded themselves of other games that were delayed less than a week before launch, that January 26 date did not budge.

Now that it seems truly carved in stone, I have to say I’m looking forward to the reveal. I still don’t think the TGA trailer was very good, and I can’t run Highguard anyway—it requires SecureBoot and TPM 2.0 to run, and my aging PC doesn’t support them—but I’m really eager to see what Wildlight has cooked up, and how people will respond once they can get their hands on the real deal. I hope it’s good!

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