That was quick. “Sequel nobody asked for,” The Culling 2, is already calling it quits due to negative reviews and low player count. Instead, the studio is going to rebrand the original game as a free to play version called The Culling Day One and focus on it instead.
Xaviant Games, the game’s developer, released a video this morning making the announcement. In it, Director of Operations Josh Van Veld was upfront about the studio’s miscalculation, calling the launch of The Culling 2 “not successful.” He continued: “The Culling 2 was not a game that you asked for, and it’s not a game that you expect as a worth successor to The Culling. … This week, we’ll be in contact with Valve, Sony, and Microsoft to close those stores and to make sure that those of you who bought the game get refunds.” Watch the full video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24rR69Ygn20&feature=youtu.be
Van Veld went on to say the studio would be focusing on reviving the original game, which seems like a smart, if not rather strange, turn of events.
The Culling was a very early entry into the battle royale genre, predating both PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. It features lots of melee combat and had a strange game show vibe, but it also had many of the features we look for in the genre now. Even in its Early Access form, we saw some promise in its ideas and presentation. It was a very odd move for Xaviant to pull it and release a sequel when it did, and the whole situation is just bizarre. My guess is this has drummed up enough bad press that The Culling Day One won’t find an audience amongst the juggernauts, but I could be wrong. However, let’s all agree that this face needs to be killed with fire:
Gah! No wonder it couldn’t find an audience.
The Culling 2 is going to be pulled this week, and we will have to wait and see when the rebranded version of the original becomes available. We’ll have more on this saga as it develops.
