One of the earlier battle royale games, The Culling, will not be receiving any future updates. According to Xaviant developer Josh Van Veld, “After more than two years dedicated to making The Culling, it’s time to announce that we have begun work on a new title.”
This is somewhat odd as The Culling just left Early Access on Steam about two months ago. The best guess is, however, tumbling numbers — or non-existent — numbers of players on Steam. In fact, Rolling Stone checked the Steam Charts for the most recent 30 days and discovered that the largest pool of concurrent players came in at 73. This is compared to over 12,000 in its initial Early Access days.
What we know about the new project at Xaviant?
The short answer is “not much”. The letter on The Culling site doesn’t offer many clues either:
While we’re excited to be working on something new, it’s also bittersweet to be moving on. The Culling has been a wonderful experience for us and so much of that is thanks to our passionate community of players. We got to know a great many of you through various channels and we watched on the edge of our seats as you organized tournaments, streamed yourselves seeking glory, and assembled videos that told your stories.
No matter who you are or how much you participated in the game’s development over the last couple of years, I want to offer a sincere thank you on behalf of myself and the Xaviant team for being part of something special. We know we couldn’t have done it without you and we are eternally grateful.
You may be wondering what we have planned next. We certainly hope you’re at least a little curious. It’s too early to say much, but we’re trying to apply all of the lessons we learned (both good and bad) from The Culling to make something very special and just as dear to our hearts.
We’ll keep you posted as more is revealed about the new game.
Did you ever play The Culling?
