{"id":1467017,"date":"2026-01-19T00:36:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/a2CnrjMmxNAGTGU52k6iWj"},"modified":"2026-01-19T00:36:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:36:45","slug":"hero-shooter-highguard-reportedly-didnt-even-pay-for-the-game-awards-slot-thats-earned-it-so-much-preemptive-hate-the-showrunners-thought-it-deserved-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/hero-shooter-highguard-reportedly-didnt-even-pay-for-the-game-awards-slot-thats-earned-it-so-much-preemptive-hate-the-showrunners-thought-it-deserved-the-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Hero shooter Highguard reportedly didn&#8217;t even pay for the Game Awards slot that&#8217;s earned it so much preemptive hate\u2014the showrunners thought it deserved the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>Remember when Apex Legends was <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/how-players-have-reacted-to-apex-legends-so-far\/\">shadow dropped<\/a>? It&#8217;s a risky move for such a high-profile game to skip all the pre-release marketing hype entirely, but it paid off, and it&#8217;s clear why Respawn went that route\u2014&#8221;photoreal PvP hero shooter&#8221; was an eyeroll-inducing prospect even back in 2019, so letting the game speak for itself short-circuited any pre-release angst.<\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t know if the strategy could have been replicated, but would it have been worse than the late Concord&#8217;s <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/fps\/concord-isnt-coming-back-and-the-developer-is-done-for-too-sony-says-it-considered-its-options-and-apparently-the-best-path-forward-is-to-permanently-sunset-the-game-and-close-the-studio\/\">legendary failure<\/a> or the reaction to the recently announced Highguard, which was <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/fps\/internet-not-convinced-it-should-care-about-another-pvp-hero-shooter-collective-eye-roll-plunges-big-game-awards-finale-reveal-into-a-youtube-dislikes-hole\/\">the final big reveal at last year&#8217;s Game Awards<\/a>? Viewers expecting something like 2023&#8217;s Monster Hunter Wilds reveal or the one-two Matrix Unreal Engine 5 tech demo and Matrix 4 trailer in 2021 have been taking out their frustrations on Highguard.<\/p>\n<p>The reveal was drowned out by hot takes calling out its &#8220;Concord vibes&#8221; and it received a ghastly 2,400 dislikes on YouTube compared to around 500 likes when it first dropped. There&#8217;s been an assumption to some of the criticism that Highguard wanted this smoke, so to speak\u2014an idea that if the Highguard studio hadn&#8217;t splurged on such an exclusive spot, it wouldn&#8217;t have earned all this ire.<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, no money changed hands for Highguard to get the catbird seat. <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/paultassi\/2026\/01\/17\/highguard-did-not-pay-for-its-infamous-game-awards-finale-slot\/\" target=\"_blank\">A report from Forbes<\/a> confirmed that it didn&#8217;t pay for the spot at all despite other developers <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kotaku.com\/game-awards-geoff-keighley-tickets-trailers-clair-obscur-2000652243\" target=\"_blank\">paying six-figure sums just to get a 60-second trailer into the show<\/a>. Forbes explained: &#8220;Reportedly, showrunner Geoff Keighley just really liked the game and offered it to them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s gotta be a bummer for the Highguard team, and almost certainly not what Keighley intended. As PC Gamer US news lead Andy Chalk noted in <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/fps\/internet-not-convinced-it-should-care-about-another-pvp-hero-shooter-collective-eye-roll-plunges-big-game-awards-finale-reveal-into-a-youtube-dislikes-hole\/\">his piece<\/a> on the reveal, the game doesn&#8217;t look abysmal, it just looks common and a little drab. Games with more egregious sins have received less vitriol.<\/p>\n<p>The free spot, which theoretically should have been a huge marketing boost, has now handed it an uphill battle to win people over. Rather than being just another hero shooter\u2014a potent enough negative to kill Concord in mere weeks\u2014it&#8217;s now <em>that<\/em> hero shooter.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not gobsmacked by Highguard either, but it strikes me as a particularly unwitting and undeserving target for the sort of <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/fps\/the-eagerness-to-grave-dance-on-unpopular-games-has-become-a-bad-habit\/\">gleeful, vibes-based, memetic hate<\/a> we see bubbling up from videogame-likers every few months\u2060\u2014see also Assassin&#8217;s Creed Shadows, Star Wars: Outlaws, even a half-hearted attempt to skewer Avowed for being woke or whatever.<\/p>\n<div class=\"product\"><a data-dimension112=\"ace75215-f84e-4751-ac70-f0d9122b7ccd\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2026 games\" data-dimension48=\"2026 games\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure \" >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:661px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:98.94%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"6offQUY4CXebir2TC27dMd\" name=\"kingdom come 2 square\" caption=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hero-shooter-highguard-reportedly-didnt-even-pay-for-the-game-awards-slot-thats-earned-it-so-much-preemptive-hate-the-showrunners-thought-it-deserved-the-spotlight.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"661\" height=\"654\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" credit=\"\" class=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/new-pc-games-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-dimension112=\"ace75215-f84e-4751-ac70-f0d9122b7ccd\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2026 games\" data-dimension48=\"2026 games\" data-dimension25=\"\"><strong>2026 games<\/strong><\/a>: All the upcoming games<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Our all-time favorites<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-50-best-free-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Free PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Freebie fest<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-fps-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best FPS games<\/strong><\/a>: Finest gunplay<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-rpgs-of-all-time\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best RPGs<\/strong><\/a>: Grand adventures<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-co-op-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best co-op games<\/strong><\/a>: Better together<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/fps\/hero-shooter-highguard-reportedly-didnt-even-pay-for-the-game-awards-slot-thats-earned-it-so-much-preemptive-hate-the-showrunners-thought-it-deserved-the-spotlight\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember when Apex Legends was shadow dropped? It&#8217;s a risky move for such a high-profile game to skip all the pre-release marketing hype entirely, but it paid off, and it&#8217;s clear why Respawn went that route\u2014&#8221;photoreal PvP hero shooter&#8221; was an eyeroll-inducing prospect even back in 2019, so letting the game speak for itself short-circuited any pre-release angst. We don&#8217;t know if the strategy could have been replicated, but would it have been worse than the late Concord&#8217;s legendary failure or the reaction to the recently announced Highguard, which was the final big reveal at last year&#8217;s Game Awards? Viewers expecting something like 2023&#8217;s Monster Hunter Wilds reveal or the one-two Matrix Unreal Engine 5 tech demo and Matrix 4 trailer in 2021 have been&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/hero-shooter-highguard-reportedly-didnt-even-pay-for-the-game-awards-slot-thats-earned-it-so-much-preemptive-hate-the-showrunners-thought-it-deserved-the-spotlight\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1467018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[91,748],"class_list":["post-1467017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-fps","tag-games"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hero shooter Highguard reportedly didn&#039;t even pay for the Game Awards slot that&#039;s earned it so much preemptive hate\u2014the showrunners thought it deserved the spotlight | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Remember when Apex Legends was shadow dropped? 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