The game that started the battle royale craze is returning to Xbox One, with what is affectionately being referred to as The Culling: Origins‘ relaunch. As such, those who own and prefer Microsoft’s console will soon be able to return to combat in the popular, melee only game. Those who do will have to go in expecting a ridiculously greedy monetization scheme, though.
When it relaunches on May 14th, the Xbox One version of The Culling: Origins will offer a 1-day trial. Anyone who wishes to purchase and continue playing can then fork over $5.99 (USD) for that option. Meanwhile, gamers who previously downloaded and played the free-to-play version will not have to pay anything at all.
“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,” Van Veld concluded, “But we’re working to bring back the PC version in the future.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjU5JfPFiZA&feature=youtu.be
The Culling: Origins will relaunch with the following updates:
- Players can play one free match online each day. Players can play additional matches through the following means:
- Winning an online match grants an Online Match Token
- Packs of Online Match Tokens can be purchased (3 tokens = $0.99, 10 tokens = $2.99, 20 tokens = $4.99)
- Online Passes providing unlimited online play can be purchased for 7 Days ($1.99) or 30 Days ($5.99)
- Xbox One graphical quality improved dramatically, rendering at 30% higher resolution with the addition of anti-aliasing and an improved framerate
- A.I. behavior has been overhauled to provide a much more compelling and challenging offline experience
- Player stamina system has been tweaked – reducing the time it takes for stamina to fully regenerate
- The game no longer includes premium items or charges for crates. Players can level up, earn crates, and unlock airdrops through offline play.
- In order to keep the game alive indefinitely, a great deal of effort has been spent streamlining backend systems to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
- A side effect of this effort is that past saved games will be wiped and all previous unlocks have been reset.