Tencent Quietly Funded Highguard Developer Wildlight Entertainment

Image via Wildlight

Tencent is reportedly the primary financial backer behind Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment, a detail neither company had made public until now.

The news comes from Game File's Stephen Totilo, who reported that TiMi Studio Group, a major Tencent subsidiary, was the lead investor funding Wildlight throughout the game's development.

TiMi Studios is responsible for massive mobile hits like Arena of Valor and Honor of Kings, which have together generated over $18 billion in combined player spending.

What makes this revelation more interesting is that Wildlight had actively kept its funding sources quiet. In past interviews, studio representatives declined to comment on who was investing in them. Their official LinkedIn page simply described Wildlight as "a new, fully-funded entertainment studio."

From The Game Awards Hype to Dead on Arrival

Highguard's journey has been rocky from the start. The game was unveiled as the final announcement during The Game Awards 2025, where host Geoff Keighley praised it extensively. In a later interview, he revealed that he had played the game in early testing (visiting the Wildlight studio multiple times), said he was “blown away,” and personally pushed for it to get the prestigious “one more thing” finale spot at The Game Awards.

However, the reception was immediately contentious. Players compared the trailer to other PvP shooters like Overwatch, Marvel Rivals, Apex Legends/Titanfall, and even Fortnite, arguing that it offered nothing new. The backlash was swift, with gamers voicing their displeasure across YouTube comments and social media.

After the announcement, Wildlight went radio silent for weeks leading up to launch. When Highguard finally released, it debuted with mostly negative reviews on Steam. Even so, it managed to hit a peak of 97,249 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. Mat Piscatella from Circana noted that Highguard even broke into the top 10 weekly active users on U.S. Steam and ranked in the top 20 on both PlayStation and Xbox during its launch week.

The honeymoon period was short-lived. Player complaints centered on bugs, poor balance, limited content, and a lack of urgency in the combat system. The initial 3v3 competitive format was especially unpopular, with many feeling the matches lacked scale and excitement. Within days, the player count dropped to just over 11,000.

In response, Wildlight quickly rolled out a 5v5 mode that was initially planned as a limited-time event, eventually making it permanent after positive community feedback.

Despite those efforts and the praise that followed, the damage was done. The player base kept shrinking, falling to around 3,800 concurrent players just two weeks after launch, knocking it out of Steam's top 200 most active games.

Then came the layoffs. Just two weeks after launch, developers from Wildlight revealed that most of the team had been let go. One developer reflected that Highguard was "turned into a joke from minute one" due to false assumptions made from the TGA trailer. Since then, several other high-profile developers have come to the game's defense, arguing it never got a fair shot.

Now, according to reports by Game File, the Tencent connection has added another layer to the story. Fans have pointed out that Tencent SVP Steven Ma was appointed to The Game Awards advisory board back in 2018 and is still listed on the organization's website. That detail has led some to question whether Keighley's decision to showcase Highguard at TGA was purely based on excitement for the game, or whether the existing relationship between Tencent and TGA played a role. Keighley has yet to respond to the controversy.

It remains unclear whether Tencent pulled funding at some point, which may have triggered the mass layoffs, or what the future holds for the studio. Wildlight stated it would retain a "core group of developers" to keep Highguard running.

However, the game's official website recently went offline and had not been restored at the time of reporting, fueling speculation that the game or the studio itself could be heading for a full shutdown.

Neither Tencent nor Wildlight provided a comment yet.