The Culling: Origins returns to Xbox One this May... with a pay-to-play model - An online game that you buy to play, with a coin-op arcade bussiness model on a dead console

[אΩ+1]

Article by TJ Denzer published May 12, 2020 7:00 AM ShackNews
Source: https://www.shacknews.com/article/1...to-xbox-one-this-may-with-a-pay-to-play-model
Archive:https://archive.vn/YXTk2
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After a couple years away The Culling: Origins is returning to Xbox One. The bloody, game show battle royale franchise was brutalized by a slew of decisions that resulted in the studio pulling The Culling 2 and then The Culling: Origins from playable storefronts. Following some time away, Xaviant is ready to give it another try, bringing the pretty enjoyable Culling: Origins back to Xbox One. However, a rather bizarre pay-to-play model for its online matches could mean a challenging time on its return.

Xaviant announced the return of The Culling: Origins to Xbox One on May 12, 2020, alongside a new trailer for the game on the Xaviant YouTube channel and a new model for play.

Launching on May 14, 2020, The Culling: Origins will bring back the mix of FPS firearm and melee combat and game show antics that set the original game apart, but it will also feature a pay-to-play model for playing online matches which work as follows.

• Players can get the game for $5.99 on Xbox One, which comes with a free trial for the first day.
• After the first day, players can play one match a day for free.
• After playing the one match per day, players can play further matches via match tokens.
• Match tokens must be earned or bought in packs, starting at $0.99 for 3 and up to 20 tokens for $4.99
• 7-day ($1.99) or 30-day (5.99) unlimited online access can also be bought.
• Cosmetics and premium items can no longer be bought in crates and instead must be earned through level-ups in offline play.

above image caption: With cosmetics and premium items relegated to level-ups and earning crates and airdrops in offline modes, the effort to instead microtransaction online matches is an odd one to say the least.

In a world where battle passes and season passes are rampant across games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, and other battle royales, it’s curious that Xaviant would go with such an odd subscription service system to allow players into its online matches. Despite this, the Xaviant devs feel confident it will be a sustainable model in a form of The Culling that will satisfy fans.

“The Culling is one of the pioneers of the Battle Royale genre and even today it stands alone as a unique up-close-and-personal combat experience,” said Josh Van Veld, Xaviant’s Director of Operations. “We get messages every day from players who want The Culling to come back and for the last several months we’ve been working to make that happen. Our new approach focuses on sustainability - we’ve optimized our systems to keep server costs low and we’ve shifted our monetization approach to ensure that players will be able to visit the island for years to come. Initially we’re focusing on Xbox One with this effort, but we’re working to bring back the PC version in the future.”

It’s worth noting that it was a lack of funding that eventually caused The Culling: Origins to be pulled from Steam and consoles after a refund for the failure of The Culling 2 back in 2018. The return of The Culling: Origins to Xbox One appears to be a bizarre experiment in monetization to say the least, but time will tell if the model stands up to the scrutiny of players or if the quality of the game can support it all the way to a PC relaunch.
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[The Last Stand]

Pay to access the game, then pay to literally PLAY a match?

I thought Konami fucked up by paying $10 for save slots.

Two failed games in a franchise and they return only to gouge players? Wow.

 

[Sir Wesley Tailpipe]

Well, Bone owners owners were dumb enough to buy the Bone to begin with, so they are clearly bad with money decisions. This has a chance of success.

 

[Meat Pickle]

I am sure even EA understands that this model is too greedy and unsustainable.

 

[The Last Stand]

I am sure even EA understands that this model is too greedy and unsustainable.

Dungeon Keeper said hi.

 

[whatever I feel like]

Orrrrrrrr they could play Fortnite for free, PUBG for less or Apex for more but only once and its also a better game.

 

[Meat Pickle]

Dungeon Keeper said hi.

Games like these only make sense in theory because they are free to play.

 

[ChucklesTheJester]

Pay to access the game, then pay to literally PLAY a match?

I thought Konami fucked up by paying $10 for save slots.

Two failed games in a franchise and they return only to gouge players? Wow.

Konami might be a shit whole of company, but they tleast know you need to lure in the people first before Hitting them with the big fat Macro transaction dick.

These devs behind culling don't get that it seems.

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

Fucking great, now EA execs have to explain to their families how they just came furiously while reading the news.

 

[The Last Stand]

Somebody joked that one day, we'd have to pay for settings in a video game.

We're not far off from that reality.

 

[אΩ+1]

EA understands that that in order to sell micro transactions you have to make initial experience free before you sell the customer micro transactions.

 

[Foxxo]

Well, 1's original launch was a disaster, and 2 was an abortion, but 3's the charm!

Oh wait, we're re-releasing 1?

...Well, third launch's the charm...

 

[Citizen Calamity]

Orrrrrrrr they could play Fortnite for free, PUBG for less or Apex for more but only once and its also a better game.

You could play those games that are varied and have unique playstyles OR you could pay to play Culling: Origins more than once a day in a format that has already been proven to not be as interesting or fun when compared those other previous titles.

 

[The Last Stand]

I'd rather pay $20 for a free to play title. At least I'd get something extra.

 

[Pissmaster]

I thought it was well known that freemium games are comprised of a playerbase of like 95% freeloaders who will never spend a dime, 4% that'll spend a buck or two at some point, and 1% whales who will spend thousands and keep your game afloat on their backs alone.

There are countless multiplayer games, even free ones, that were dead after a week. This game will be dead on arrival. Even the devs behind the shitpost parody game Totally Accurate Battlegrounds had the foresight to offer the game for free for a week, so they'd have some kind of playerbase. That $6 entry fee might as well be $60 for how much a price can gate your game off.

 

[HeyYou]

I thought this was a joke at first. This is straight up unbelievable.

 

[Spamy the Bot]

Launching a Battle Royale game in 2020?
I love video game execs who just look at "genre sells a lot" and go we need to have our own clone/killer game.
Missing the point how important the brand is over the genre. You play mario not platformers, you play CoD not fps games etc.

Also this model will guarantee that it will have an unhealthy player base.

 

[Exbein]

they should change the free battle a day to a stamina system like in gacha, and maybe this game wouldn't fall flat on its face

 

[Borax Bozo]

The Culling had some great ideas, and the mostly-melee combat system was good. Too much of the game is tied up in the FUNC crafting system though, and other games with just drops outpace it.

 

[Book Thief]

Remember the days when you bought a game, that was the end of the transaction between you and the publisher? I miss those days. I miss them a lot.