The Culling is back! Now with pay-per-match model!

[FakeSympathy]

If anyone has forgotten, The Culling was one of the worst Battle Royale game ever to come out in 2016. It functioned horribly, and instead of devs listening to the feedbacks, they decided to create the sequel in 2018, still broken af.

Well everyone, I'd like to present you all with Culling's spectacular comeback! Now with never-before-seen "Pay per match' monetization model!


I mean wow. I am actually impressed at how audacious this model is. You are telling me, that you will allow one game per free, in which it can last less than 5 min depending on how quickly toy die, and charge money to get back in, and the only way to join another match is to win? ARE YOU MAD? How the fuck do you plan on gathering your player base in the first place, let alone keeping them?

Even EA or Activision don't do stuff like this. They know there will be more money loss if they do this. Hell, they have Apex and Warzone, which are FREE!
Oh and the game still look like shit, btw.

 

[thebobmaster]

It's actually even better than that. You see, pay-per-match is only one of the options. You can also buy a weekly or monthly pass.

That's right, The Culling is going full MMO model. Also, unless you previously owned the game, you have to buy the game first, only to have to pay to play more than one match a day unless you manage to win.

Which, granted, will probably not be hard, if this game pulls Culling 2 numbers.

 

[SupahEwok]

Battle Royales have been around for 4 years? I thought it was just something the kids had picked up a year or two ago.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Even EA or Activision don't do stuff like this.

In a satirical sense, everyone's ragging on Xaviant not to give EA/Activision ideas.

Anyway, I've already seen Jim Sterling's video on this and I had never even heard of the Culling until said video (my main observation being that it looked more appropriate as a bad competitor to PUBG mobile than anything else). I gave no f***s then, and I give even fewer now, aside from the usual contempt for such ridiculous monetisation schemes. I'd love to see a streamer play it and lose it when they don't realise they've run out of match tokens.

 

[Gordon_4]

I mean I don't want to compare this craven shit merchant to anyone with as much charm and panache as Captain Reynolds but the sentiment is about right. Bold here read as 'breathtakingly arrogant' of course.

 

[Silvanus]

I'm gobsmacked anybody could think this would work.

 

[Chimpzy]

I'm gobsmacked anybody could think this would work.

Why not? Plenty of shitty practices started out being ridiculed, called scummy or dumb ideas that would never work. Remember the Horse Armor dlc for Obllivion? People all over used to balk simply at the idea of paying for something that's purely for in-game looks. Nowadays, few people still bat an eye at cosmetic dlc unless there's an inordinate amount of it.

Will this scheme work? Maybe, maybe not. But if it does, even only modestly, you can bet execs will take notice. It's often said the big publishers don't understand their audience. Not true. They do. Just not in any way that is actually to our benefit. They know the gamer is easily converted.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Which, granted, will probably not be hard, if this game pulls Culling 2 numbers.

As a friend of mine asked last night: If you win the match by being the only person in it, do you get to play again?

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Why not? Plenty of shitty practices started out being ridiculed, called scummy or dumb ideas that would never work. Remember the Horse Armor dlc for Obllivion? People all over used to balk simply at the idea of paying for something that's purely for in-game looks. Nowadays, few people still bat an eye at cosmetic dlc unless there's an inordinate amount of it.

Will this scheme work? Maybe, maybe not. But if it does, even only modestly, you can bet execs will take notice. It's often said the big publishers don't understand their audience. Not true. They do. Just not in any way that is actually to our benefit. They know the gamer is easily converted.

Once a ballsy coked-up exec catches wind of it, the process is simple...
1. Buy up trusted high-profile developer, or repurpose one you already own to begin work on game. Preferably a known IP.
2. Begin the marketing machine, at least half of budget spent on building relentless hype.
3. Drop the bomb explaining payment scheme, the most egregious one first. (Must be done by trusted dev representative).
4. After expected backlash, deploy apologies, thank for feedback, lower payment scheme to standard plan.
5. Gain trust, await profits!

 

[BrawlMan]

I forgot this game even existed. Good luck trying to sell that anyone; especially with the kiddies who are too high on Fortnite to play anything else.

 

[Silvanus]

Why not? Plenty of shitty practices started out being ridiculed, called scummy or dumb ideas that would never work. Remember the Horse Armor dlc for Obllivion? People all over used to balk simply at the idea of paying for something that's purely for in-game looks. Nowadays, few people still bat an eye at cosmetic dlc unless there's an inordinate amount of it.

Will this scheme work? Maybe, maybe not. But if it does, even only modestly, you can bet execs will take notice. It's often said the big publishers don't understand their audience. Not true. They do. Just not in any way that is actually to our benefit. They know the gamer is easily converted.

I don't doubt that big publishers understand their audience in a sort of macro, statistical sense, though that hasn't stopped them making monumentally ill-judged moves in the past.

But this isn't a big publisher: this is an independent studio which has published pretty much just The Culling 1 and 2, and has been quite unsuccessful at that endeavour.

 

[CriticalGaming]

This is such a bad idea that it's kind of hilarious.

And also sad because you know SOMEBODY is paying for it somewhere....maybe probably.

Didn't The Culling 2 get pulled off of Steam after a week? How is this developer still in business?

 

[Avnger]

This is such a bad idea that it's kind of hilarious.

And also sad because you know SOMEBODY is paying for it somewhere....maybe probably.

Didn't The Culling 2 get pulled off of Steam after a week? How is this developer still in business?

I almost have to wonder if this move is being financed as "market research" by one of the big publishers behind the scenes.

 

[tippy2k2]

"No one was playing our game! How do we get people to try our sequel?"

"Charge them for the game and then charge them to play individual maps?"

"Jennings, you brilliant son of a *****, that's brilliant!!! Now pass the cocaine!'

 

[Nick Calandra]

I go this press release the other day and was just dumbfounded by it. This has to be Xaviant's last ditch effort to say in business before they close. It's sad, but also whoever is in charge there has mismanaged that company so awfully I can't believe anyone is still there working.

 

[Dreiko]

I think this may be a ninja marketing campaign because I never even heard of this game before but now all the outrage has elevated their name recognition.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

This is absolutely hilarious, what the fuck. How good a game would this have to be before it even approached a chance at making money with a model like this?!

 

[sXeth]

Battle Royales have been around for 4 years? I thought it was just something the kids had picked up a year or two ago.

original Culling was more or less the first kind of trending one. It had a big presence on twitch/youtube at the time. which fizzled out when they could never polish it up and pubg and others with basic development investment overtook it

 

[Aegix Drakan]

As I said on the Jim Sterling video...

So hang on...The game that had to close up shop because it didn't have enough users to populate the game...Is adopting a payment model that's practically DESIGNED to stop people from playing a whole lot at a time? ...What were they THINKING?!

 

[Hades]

I actually don't think this is an idiot who really think this will work. I think this is an idiot who is extremely desperate and is making one last effort to avoid closing up shop for good.