Xaviant getting in early on worst developer of the year.
The Culling developer Xaviant may have just solidified its place as the worst developer of 2020 which is saying a lot in a world where Steam Direct still exists. If you don’t remember Xaviant, they launched The Culling back in 2017. The Culling is one of those lessons they teach in school about knowing your audience, because while the game was originally lauded as a solid battle royale game, numerous changes during early access had burned bridges with the player base and by the time the game was ready for full launch it had driven off its community.
So Xaviant ditched the title and released The Culling 2 in July 2018 to the open arms of absolutely nobody. With day one population figures at less than 300 that plummeted to seven by the following day, Xaviant was forced to wash their hands of the title and give everyone a refund. Xaviant rebooted The Culling only to learn that the past couple of years of PR damage weren’t about to be overturned so quickly, and within a year had shut down from its lukewarm reception.
Well the dying are never truly dead, and The Culling is back but this time it is on the Xbox One. It appears this time instead of burning the bridge, Xaviant is just going to start off bridgeless. Sans bridge.
Because you see The Culling: Origins costs $6 on Xbox One and comes with a one day trial. A one day trial to what? I’m glad you asked. You’ll be able to play one match per day, after which you will need to use player tokens. If you win the match, you’ll win a token. Otherwise you’ll need to buy tokens either in packs or by subscription.
The tokens go for 3 for $.99 or 20 tokens for $4.99. A subscription with unlimited plays will run you $1.99 per week or $5.99 per month. There is an offline mode with bots, these do not cost money. You can hear Josh Van Veld explain in the video below how The Culling needs to have a dirty monetization scheme because they have server costs.
Surely this is an out of season April Fool’s joke, right? Right? The Culling puffs out Xbox One on May 14, and you can bet MMO Fallout will be here to cover it.
MMO Fallout 