Last week, the team at Xaviant launched The Culling 2 across PC and consoles, refocussing the game to play out more like a typical H1Z1 or PUBG match with an emphasis on gun fights rather than tactical melee. Players were swift to give the sequel negative reviews on Steam and the player count subsequently dropped to single digits within 48 hours of the game's launch. Now, Xaviant is facing some “difficult discussions” about the future of the studio.

Originally, The Culling was a fairly unique battle royale game, with a melee combat system that called for skill, good timing and stamina management. There was also a perk system to help differentiate player encounters. Over the course of early access, a lot of these features were either completely changed or stripped down, which caused player counts and popularity to dwindle.

In The Culling 2, the developers have doubled down on these changes, and unfortunately, this has left the sequel feeling like a generic Battle Royale game for many fans of the original. Steam reviews are currently ‘mostly negative', with players calling out the sequel's changes and price tag as major issues.

In a statement on Twitter, Xaiviant acknowledged that it is in a bad position, saying: “It’s time for us here at Xaviant to come together for some much needed soul searching and to have some admittedly difficult discussions about the future of our studio. We’ll talk soon.”

KitGuru Says: It seems clear that the goal of The Culling 2 wasn't to bring back old players, but rather, to try and captivate a new audience entirely. Unfortunately, that is difficult to do without good word spreading an established community. I hope that Xaviant finally listens to fans of The Culling 1 and makes the changes necessary to bring players back.

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