Gaming: Highguard Devs Promise It Won't Have Gaudy Crossover Skins Or...

Highguard has "war chests" that never expire similar to Helldivers 2 warbonds.

After playing a few hours of Highguard at a hands-on event in Los Angeles last week, I don't think it's my next FPS obsession. I do, however, respect the stance its developers at Wildlight Entertainment are taking with their debut game's business model.

Highguard is free-to-play, it has cosmetic-only battle passes that never expire, new heroes and maps are free for all, and the most expensive items⁠in its store at launch—like a legendary bear mount—are $20.

"We wanted to make a store that we as players want to experience. That means cosmetic only, direct purchase only, no FOMO, no pay for power. No pay to win, pay walling, no RNG, no loot boxes," said VP of product and publishing Jason Torfin in a group interview with press.

Good news, but not all that notable. I wanted to know if Wildlight had a policy about a specific practice of live-service games: bombarding players with pop-up ads on every launch, between every match, and layered within every menu tab. Fortnite is a major free-to-play offender, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6 (both $70 games) are particularly aggressive about pop-up ads, going above and beyond to upsell an already-paying playerbase on gaudy $30 upgrades.

If I never decide a Highguard skin is worth the scratch, will the game punish me for it?

"We share your concerns," Wildlight co-founder and game director Chad Grenier told PC Gamer. "You'll see when you're out there playing the game, what you see today is what we're launching with."

Grenier referred to the build of Highguard that I played in Los Angeles—chacter-driven menu backgrounds, a simple mode select screen, a store tab, but no ads outside the store itself.

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"There's no ads that we're holding back for this event or anything like that. We're not throwing anything in your face."

Source: PC Gamer