It’s going to be hard to convince me otherwise.
Let’s get one thing straight about The Culling: Origins. This game was doomed from the start. I have said it before and I will say it again, but Xaviant’s decision to implement the worst monetization strategy this decade didn’t kill The Culling. Xaviant having burned down every bridge with the gaming public, having no credibility, and learning absolutely nothing from its past failure was the death of The Culling.
The Culling is a poisoned brand that will taint anything that it touches.
It’s been a shocking month since The Culling: Origins relaunched on Xbox One and nobody seems to care, least of all Xaviant themselves who genuinely seem to have lost interest in the game that they farted onto the Xbox store. And I anticipated that this relaunch was a desperate cash grab that would be immediately forgotten once that upfront influx of cash never showed up. Turns out it was a desperate cash grab that has been immediately forgotten.
Let’s start with the Twitter account that has not been updated since May 14, launch day. Now that’s fantastic brand management. Now let’s look at Xaviant’s Youtube page where the Origins announcement video sits at 750 upvotes and 39k downvotes. You know the one where Josh Van Veld looked us in the face and explained that The Culling’s monetization had to be greedy and anti-consumer because Xaviant couldn’t competently build a revenue source and the loyal fans (all none of you) were going to have to throw in some handouts to make up for it.
It showed us that Xaviant wasn’t just terrible at reading the room, they were woefully unaware about the value of their own product. I don’t know who at Xaviant looked at the pathetic failure of The Culling, The Culling 2, and The Culling’s free to play relaunch and decided that they had the leverage to force people to pay per match, but that person should not be making business decisions more complicated than ordering a meal at McDonald’s and even then I wouldn’t trust them with my lunch.
You can see plain as day that Josh has no confidence in his pitch or this product. I’ve seen a lot of comments calling Van Veld a snake oil salesman in this pitch video and I find that comment offensive. Snake oil salesmen know their product doesn’t work, but they are mostly capable of convincing other people that they believe it does work.
The Culling has had two reviews on the Xbox Store since its launch last month. As MMO Fallout’s Waste Management correspondent, it has been my job to keep track on how the game has fared. On launch day The Culling was not filling its queues more than halfway; that’s not getting more than 7-8 people in a 16 person match. As I am writing this, that being 4:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon I can’t find a match with more than three other people. The daily limit was sitting at 25 for a while but then went back down to 10.
It’s time to say goodbye to The Culling. Xaviant burned its legacy down years ago and all they are doing is frantically trying to piece the ashes back into a recognizable sculpture. Not going to work.
Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter.
MMO Fallout 