Recently, the failed battle royale gameThe Cullingannounced that it would be returning, though it faced immediate criticism upon revealing that the game featured what can be described, at best, as a predatorymonetization system, equally as egregious as some mobile games. One ofThe Culling’sdevelopers has since revealed more information about the new system, changes that are being made, and why the developers feel it’s necessary.
Xaviant Director of Operations Josh Van Veld opened up aboutThe Culling’snew monetization systemin an interview with PC Gamer, shedding a bit more light on the situation. Originally, players — even those that had already purchased the game — were allowed one free match a day, and would then have to purchase tokens to play, or buy a pass. The one game limit was raised to ten after fan outcry, though many are still unhappy with the restriction.
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According to Van Veld, the team was “kind of terrified of everybody coming back, overloading the servers, costing us a ton of money and not spending anything,” which caused issues the first time thatThe Cullingrelaunched as a free-to-play title. In that case, the game had “onboarded a million players very quickly,” which Van Veld described as “overwhelming in some ways.” The situation led to the team rapidly losing money.
Van Veld went on to explain that upset players likely considered themselves “long-term” users, which the monetization system isn’t designed around. Xaviant’s goal is no longer to haveThe Cullingbecome a huge game, as the developer tried that and was unable to make a sustainable product. Instead, the developer seems to want enough players to keep matches full, and to keep things sustainable.
Xaviant may tweakThe Culling’spayment system, but it won’t be changed entirely — which seems like an overwhelmingly bad decision. It’s true,The Culling —and developer Xaviant — is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Without a reliable and consistent source of income, the game is almost certain to shut down again, as it has multiple times in the past, withThe Culling 2being a particular point of contention.
However, any restrictions on playtime, especially for the players that purchased the game originally, are bound to be seen as a slap in the face by many, asThe Culling’spay-per-match systemis simply a bad idea. With other, unrestricted battle royale games out there, it’s hard to see an avenue whereThe Cullingmakes a comeback, at least as things stand.
