My buddy Tomas Franzese in his new newsletter—Remastered.

"Since the mid-2000s, each new live service success has enamored those with power in the video game industry, and investment in that kind of game increased. Yet, as new live services were being worked on, successful live service games continued to thrive, and their communities became ever more entrenched.

Each new challenger in the live service space faces a more daunting challenge than the last, and the threat of comparison to all the failures that have come before. I’ve seen people online jokingly refer to Highguard as 'Concord 2.' The next controversial live service game will likely be labeled 'the next Highguard,' and curse its chances at success in an already tumult-filled game industry."

When I talked about Highguard on Controlled Interests Gamecast #274 I described it as a game mode, not a game. I stand by that in the aftermath of its shutdown. The systems, world, and loop did not have the legs to stand amongst the Fortnites, Call of Duties, and Rainbow Six Sieges of the world. Sure, new games can enter and disrupt – I think Arc Raiders (and perhaps Marathon) – are doing that. There will always be those games that come along, but Highguard never was one of those and it was apparent from the moment you booted it up.

It closing the 2025 Game Awards just shown a spotlight on a mediocre/mid game. Now, to be fair, the wider gaming internet wildly overreacted and certainly did not help. But if you, ya know, played the game, you'd know it didn't have the sauce.