Xaviant Games have announced the return of The Culling as The Culling: Origins. However, the game’s business model has enraged fans and gamers.
The news comes via Xaviant Games announcing that battle royale game The Culling would return as The Culling: Origins. While the game’s servers were shut down in May 2019, the game will come back on May 14th on Xbox One and later on Windows PC.
However, the blog explains there is a caveat, which have driven fans berserk. Due to the expense of free to play games (such as server costs), the game will now have a “working monetization scheme to pay for everything.” Apparently, selling crates and cosmetic items was not enough to sustain the original game.
As such, the game will not be free to play (selling for $5.99), though those who own the original will still have access. New players also get a 1-day free trial.
The game now only allows one free online match per-day, before users have to use free match tokens (for winning games), or pay for a week’s or month’s access.
“You’ll get one free online match every day. And if you win a match, you’ll earn a free match token. So you’ll be able to play the game online each day without spending any extra money.
If you want to play more than that, we’ll be offering online match token packs along with passes that give unlimited access for a week or a month.”
In a dev diary from Xaviant Director of Operations Josh Van Veld, this pricing is broken down further. At 2:11, The pricing is revealed as follows:
“PRICING (USD, Varies by Country)
Base Price: $5.99
1 Free Daily Online Match Token
Win tokens by winning matches.
Token Packs:
3-Pack: $0.99
10-Pack: $2.99
20-Pack: $4.99
Unlimited Online Pass:
7-Day: $1.99
30-Day: $5.99”
Returning to the blog, crates and premium cosmetics are no longer being sold, and all player profiles have been reset to level 1. The XP rate has been doubled, and can also be earned in offline matches (where players can still earn new Airdrops).
“We feel confident that these big changes mean we’ll be able to safely cover the server costs and keep the game alive indefinitely,” the blog post reads. “Along with those big changes come some exciting improvements.” These include optimizations, improved graphics, a 30% higher resolution, improved anti-aliasing and framerate, and improved AI behavior.
You can find the announcement trailer and the dev diary below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjU5JfPFiZA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DagyNvoA9DU
However, fans are enraged at the changes. The announcement trailer has a like/dislike rating of 206/2.6k as of this time of writing, while the dev diary video is at 282/7.5k.
The Steam Community Hub for the original game and even the one for The Culling 2 are rife with mockery and derision. Several recent reviews for the original game on Steam also give scathing condemnation. The game’s business model has also been condemned on social media [1, 2].
What do you think? Sound off in the comments below!
