Home Gaming The Culling is back yet again, this time with a ridiculous business model

The Culling is back yet again, this time with a ridiculous business model

2 min read
4
Culling (2)

Son, you see that bandwagon over there? The one that all the cool kids like Fortnite, PUBG and Apex Legends are sitting on? Don’t try and hop onto it my boy. That will only lead to disaster. Why, just ask Radical Heights when it finally stops crying! There’s no guarantee that directing manpower and cash at the latest trend in gaming is going to result in massive success, and that’s a lesson that The Culling learnt a very very hard way.

A couple of years ago, developer Xaviant decided to turn off the lights on the reasonably popular The Culling, a game whose own battle royale mechanics were tight and sported high intensity small-scale showdowns. It was alright at the time, but Xaviant decided to focus their efforts on a sequel only a few months after the first game launched.

Culling (3)

The Culling 2 would eventually launch, to an audience of literally tens of people. So massive a flop was the game in its effort to be the next PUBG (with some flagrant inspiration on display), that it only lasted a few weeks before it was left to die. Xaviant then decided to go back to the original The Culling, relaunching it as The Culling: Origins and adopting a free to play story in September 2018.

Job done, lessons learnt…right? Not exactly.

This version of The Culling would survive until May 2019, shutting down amidst a chorus of almost no news on its demise. Xaviant still believe in the IP though, and they’re back with yet another stab at the game that comes with one of the most ludicrous monetisation models ever imagined. Seriously, brace yourself and hold onto your asses for this one.

Culling (1)
  • You’ll need to own the game, either as a new purchase, you bought the original version from way back in the day or you downloaded the F2P version
  • You can play one free match per day
  • Extra matches will cost you tokens
  • To obtain tokens, you need to purchase a pack of them or win a match that rewards you with a token
  • The price for a pack of tokens is $0.99 for three of them, $2.99 for ten and $4.99 for twenty
  • Or you can purchase an Online Pass for unlimited play
  • The Online Pass costs $1.99 for a week of access, or $5.99 for 30 days

Xaviant says that the new monetisation approach is designed so that “players will be able to visit the island for years to come,” and I genuinely wish that I had this level of confidence just so that I can funnel it into creating a QuaranTinder account.

Last Updated: May 13, 2020

4 Comments

  1. The Grand reopening of closing our doors again.

    Reply

  2. Hammersteyn

    May 13, 2020 at 16:02

    The sad part is that there’s people that will waste their money on this.

    Reply

  3. HairyEwok

    May 14, 2020 at 08:55

    So they want to charge people per game played……. Not even EA will go this low.

    Reply

    • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

      May 25, 2020 at 21:21

      Arcades did this decades ago

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

God of War Heads to PC Available January 14, 2022

Sony has been making moves in the PC market for a couple of years by re-releasing some of …