The Culling 2 Re-Releases, Charging Players by the Match

Monetization in video games is a complicated thing nowadays - not everyone uses the one-time payment method anymore. The developers behind The Culling have taken that two steps further, reviving their failed game and introducing a pay-per-match system.

Developers Xaviant recently announced that their previous battle royale game, The Culling 2, will be re-released on the Xbox One after shutting down, and with it comes a new kind of monetization scheme that charges players to play more than one game a day.



Here's how it works: those who don't own the game will pay $5.99 to own it. After that, they will be allowed to play 1 free match every day. If they want to play another match, they can spend a "match token" or they can purchase a weekly or monthly unlimited pass using real-world money. Players can purchase bundles of match tokens using real-world money, or they can earn a single token by winning the last match they were in.

Don't worry, new players will get a one-day free trial "to see if they like it."

They didn't elaborate on how much the match tokens or weekly/monthly passes would cost. Furthermore, using microtransactions to purchase cosmetics and loot crates have been removed. 

For those who don't remember, the Culling 2 was released in the middle of 2018, right in the deep end of the Fortnite and PUBG boom. The game had such a poor launch that they removed the game from the marketplace only a week later.

This is one of the stranger things to come out into the market right now. The Culling 2 absolutely bombed when it released the first time due to the virtually empty player base. Introducing a bizarre and inevitably controversial monetization scheme like this seems like the worst way they could have made a return.

Don't be surprised if this one drops off the market after only a week, too.

The Culling 2 will be available (again) on May 14 on the Xbox One.