Highguard devs outline first-year roadmap to avoid Apex Legends mistakes

At a January press event attended by Polygon, Wildlight Entertainment developers said Highguard already has a full year of planned content and a live-service roadmap designed to correct mistakes they made with Apex Legends. About 60% of Wildlight’s roughly 100-person team previously worked at Respawn, and design lead Mohammad Alavi said, "I don't think it's any mystery that we launched Apex Legends and we were not ready." Lead designer Carlos Pineda said Respawn had been "a little bit caught with our pants down" after Apex's launch and "we put everything out." Wildlight says it has learned from that experience and built a clearer pipeline.

CEO Dusty Welch said player expectations have accelerated and "migrat[ed] more towards the expectation of mobile players," but added the studio will not match the hyper-rapid pace of some mobile developers ("Thank God"). Rather than three- or six-month seasons, Highguard will use two-month Episodes.

The launch roadmap published at release promises new Wardens, weapons, and maps across the year; Episodes will include new weapons, mods, bases, and amulets, three Episodes will add new maps, two will add new mounts, and there is a "surprise" planned for December. Wildlight’s product and publishing VP Jason Torfin said the team "literally build[s] pivots into the way we design" to meet player demand, and Torfin added the studio "ruthlessly scope[s]" development.

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