In the last few days, it was announced that the multiplayer hero shooter Highguard, developed by Wildlight Entertainment, will be shutting down its servers on March 12. The news blindsided many players because the game had only launched a few weeks earlier on January 26 in Early Access on Steam.

For any online multiplayer title, a short lifespan is always possible. But a shutdown that happens barely six weeks after launch is especially shocking. It continues a growing trend of live service games that disappear almost as quickly as they arrive. Some titles seem to last about as long as a hamster in a second-grade classroom.

Seeing Highguard’s quick exit got me thinking about a problem that many modern games face. Before we go any further, I want to coin a new term for this phenomenon: Games-as-a-Job or GaaJ.

GaaJ are titles that expect players to invest time the way they would invest hours at work. Not just a few evenings here and there, but days, weeks, or even months of regular play. In many cases, they encourage daily logins, weekly objectives, and long seasonal progression tracks.

This idea did not start with modern live service games. MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, and even Diablo III built massive communities around long-term play. However, those titles were built to support that lifestyle from the ground up. Players knew what they were signing up for.

Over time, the model spread. Games like Fortnite, Destiny, and Overwatch introduced battle passes, seasonal rewards, and daily challenges designed to keep players coming back. Eventually, even long-running franchises like Call of Duty adopted these mechanics once publishers realized how profitable ongoing engagement could be. And, of course, the mobile gaming world perfected this formula years ago with daily login bonuses and time-limited events.

From a business perspective, the appeal of the GaaJ model is obvious.

First, it creates revenue opportunities long after the original sale. Instead of relying only on new copies sold, publishers can generate ongoing income from cosmetics, battle passes, and other high-margin items. Second, high engagement numbers look great to investors and executives. If millions of players log in every day, that is a metric that companies love to show off.

Finally, there is the infamous sunk cost effect. If players spend months grinding levels, unlocking gear, and buying seasonal content, they become emotionally invested. The more time someone spends in a title, the harder it becomes to walk away from it.

In theory, the strategy sounds perfect. But in reality, it rarely works the way executives hope.

Every publisher wants the next Fortnite. The kind of game that becomes a cultural phenomenon and dominates an entire genre. But games like that are extremely rare, and they often grow slowly rather than exploding overnight.

More importantly, the GaaJ model runs into a simple problem: players only have so much time. If someone has already spent thousands of hours in World of Warcraft, why would they abandon that investment to start a brand-new fantasy MMORPG? If a player has spent years mastering Overwatch, what incentive do they have to begin again in a new hero shooter like Highguard?

Live service titles are not just competing with other games. They are competing with the existing time commitments players have already made.

And that brings us back to Highguard.

To be clear, Highguard itself actually looked quite promising. It is a colorful multiplayer shooter with strong character design, fluid combat, and a visually appealing sci-fi world. From a gameplay standpoint, it did not appear to be a low-effort cash grab. By most accounts, Wildlight Entertainment built something that could have found an audience under different circumstances.

Unfortunately, quality alone does not guarantee survival in the live service market. Launching a new multiplayer ecosystem today means convincing players to leave the ones they already inhabit. That is an incredibly difficult task, even for well-made titles. If a community does not form quickly enough, server populations drop, matchmaking slows down, and the title can spiral into decline before it ever has a chance to grow.

In that sense, Highguard’s fate may say more about the crowded live service market than about the developers themselves. The biggest problem with GaaJ is that many players simply do not want another obligation in their lives. After working all day, a lot of gamers want something relaxing or self-contained. An adventure that can be completed, enjoyed, and set aside without feeling like you are falling behind.

When a title begins to feel like a second shift after your real job, enthusiasm can fade quickly. The number of live service games that have struggled or shut down in recent years suggests that this model may be reaching a breaking point. At one time, you might have called a game like Highguard a canary in the coal mine.

But at this point, we might be waist-deep in canaries.

Players are still embracing titles that are fun, polished, and respectful of their time. Ones like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and other recent hits prove that a strong single-player experience can still capture a massive audience. Even multiplayer sensations like Fall Guys, Lethal Company, and Repo succeeded largely because they focus on fun first rather than daily engagement metrics.

The lesson here may be simple. Gamers want great titles. Not another job.

Now if you will excuse me, I should probably get back to my work and my giant review backlog before the chief editor shows up with a torch and pitchfork.