067ba3 No.15147481
From the Cold Culling Dept.
I hope you fags are ready for some more schadenfreude, because a another studio is failing due to an extreme miscalculation involving Battle Royale shit.
A little over two days ago, Xaviant released a sequel to their hit game "The Culling" on steam, and we may have player numbers worse than LawBreakers or StillBorn here. It's predecessor even has a higher player count despite giving their player base many middle fingers in the past.
All evidence points to the developers going all in towards the development of this game, and made a critical error along the way. From what I gathered, Culling 2 more follows the stereotypes of what the Battle Royale (BR) genre has developed into now; abandoning the intimate melee focused combat for the addition of small arms. In a great moment of cruel irony, the developers abandoned a successful formula that helped popularize the genre before it really gained it's name.
Their risk has paid off in spades.
https://twitter.com/Xaviant/status/1017512218617942022
https://archive.is/xffRp
Steam Charts
The Culling 2 https://archive.is/o2rzu | vs. its predecessor: https://archive.is/nZMyN
–
The abandoning of the prior formula explains only a small portion of the failure. The critical failure point lies with how the developers handled the first game in the series. Xaviant released patches for the game that tanked the game's popularity by screwing the balance, fucking with established mechanics, and ignoring or blindly following player feedback.
There's a great deal more that I'm glossing over but one thing sticks out to me. Following an abandonment of the game's development and a leak to the sequel being made drummed up no anticipation for the release of a new game. The developers didn't learn what they did right, twice, and they bet the farm on it.
067ba3 No.15147489
Then again, who's to say it's bad? I mean, we have genuine reviews like this, so who knows.
ee5853 No.15147493
>>15147489
I mean, being able to type up that much without saying anything of value is a talent, that's for damn sure. Boy has a future in politics.
17a828 No.15147497
So those guys made one of the first BR games even before PUBG and Fortnite, got decent numbers with it, but saw the huge success of the ones that came after, made a sequel that's more like those, and alienating their old fanbase while failing to attract a new one? Is that about the size of it?
8b9633 No.15147525
>>15147481
>all-time peak
>249
Oh my god
078bcf No.15147527
>>15147489
Reminder that
>has lots of potential
means literally nothing at all. That just means there *could* be a good game here, if the devs would make it into a good game. It applies to nearly anything, and is completely devoid of substance or information.
17a828 No.15147536
>>15147527
You're wrong. Having potential means you've got a solid base ; that there's enough to hook the interest of players, and makes them want to see more of it. That you've got a good core and only content or polish is lacking. That's not true of all games, not by a long shot.
Take, say, FFXV. It's got four uncharismatic gay assholes as the only characters you'll ever have. It never had any potential. Best you can do with that is scrap that stupid premise and make an actual JRPG with an appealing team.
Of course, in the case of this particular review it's probably bullshit anyway, but no, a game having potential does mean something specific.
edd955 No.15147544
>we admittably need to do some soul searching
<everyone is telling them that they ruined the first game with all the patches and that they should go back to the old combat
<everyone is telling them that their communication with the community was non-existent
<everyone is telling them that The Culling 2 was a shameless cashgrab right out of the gate, it's all time peak players is 249 compared to 12k from The Culling 1, which is also completely dead now, how the fuck do you mess that up
<literally everyone is telling them that all they need to do is revert the culling 1 back to an older version
<they've been constantly told this but they keep ignoring it
I'd imagine being livid as fuck at the sheer incompetency and thick-headedness at display here, had I actually experienced the game at launch and if it was actually as great as everyone said it is. I can only assume that the lead developers were too damn proud of their shitty decisions which is why they won't revert their changes or actually communicate properly, and now they're paying the price.
8b9633 No.15147611
>the game died in 14 and a half hours
c8a820 No.15147759
>>15147481
So they devs are gonna Cull it back?
9392f2 No.15147841
You forgot to inform that the devs had tge great idea of announcing the game literally one day before release.
8b9633 No.15147928
>>15147841
They didn't even finish the first game before releasing this one.
694bb6 No.15147933
They also fired all the devs that worked on the first game (apparently).
f9e975 No.15148026
>>15147481
>player numbers worse than LawBreakers
JUST
35e34b No.15148063
>>15147759
Weak shit/10, Carlos. Now get in the van.
000000 No.15148231
>>15147527
>>15147536
It also means "the product is shit" every single time that this sentence is used.
>>15147544
The lesson is always the same: the first time ever that any developer ignores it's customers, said developer must be avoided and all his future works boycotted.
067ba3 No.15149047
>>15147933 (checked)
>They fired all of the devs of the first game
This is looking more and more like a negative case study for a management class every second.
2fcc84 No.15149049
That's pretty sad, I remember the Culling as one of the earlier entries into the "battle royal 2016-2018 shitfest supreme"
9456c0 No.15149413
The game died so fast there probably wasn't a single match in its history lmao
62b021 No.15149439
>>15149049
It was actually a really good game before they broke everything about it for no reason. The mix of melee, blocking, jumping around like an idiot, chugging consumables and grabbing anything off the ground to chuck at people during the early game was far more interesting than hitscan weapons. It felt very '90s development wise until they apparently went insane and became allergic to fun. It's a lot like what happened with Tribes.
75f2b2 No.15149451
I just love when people chasing fads get fucked.
6ec811 No.15149512
>>15147497
Yup, it was a melee focused battle royale, but it tried to get PUBG's crowd by focusing on small arms. Ended up losing both crowds.
bb5ba2 No.15149602
>>15149555
>5:45 minutes
>14.35 MB
>1280x720
>gets trips on top of that
How?
b844da No.15149676
>>15149602
What do you mean? You can compress almost anything to under 16 MBs but obviously with a video this long the quality is going to suffer. It would have helped to lower the resolution.
52b683 No.15149835
>>15149676
this. its just a pain finding the right bitrate so you get the best quality also helps to drop the fps of the video if you want to squeeze out even more
8b9633 No.15149850
>>15149835
Name a better Jewish hip-hop trio other than the Beastie Boys
bb289c No.15149864
>>15149555
>absolutely nobody playing.
>this is where squidward should have gone when he wanted to be all alone.
Shit this disaster is funny as hell.
ba57cf No.15149893
>>15149555
Funny I was just watching penguinz.
b844da No.15149896
>>15149835
You could have twice the quality if you converted it in VP9.
20ccd8 No.15149921
>>15149555
>i bought it
jesus, normalfags do that? just to say he was part of that disaster?
8b9633 No.15149929
>>15149864
He's a rich motherfucker, anon.
54a6a7 No.15149954
>>15149921
He usually plays shit or unplayable games for fun
bb289c No.15149955
>>15149921
He says afterwards he will likely refund it since the game is absolutely unplayable.
552db5 No.15151439
>>15149921
Also he most likely earned more money from that video than the price of the game anyway
8b9633 No.15157623
9ef5f4 No.15157640
>>15149921
I don't know about him, but surely other normalfags will buy it to
>be part of le history xdxd
3e3470 No.15157662
Battle Royale is dead genre only existing as meme
just like MOBAs
its one game mode glorified by dumbass teenagers, its only market is its temperoary hype around specific titles
its only destination is fade away and be forgotten
unless you are doing something interesting that separates you from the rest your game is doomed if you ever try to make one
99f426 No.15157821
>1 player in game
>2 in the last day
>249 peak
Even lawbreakers was a bigger success then this and didn't die as fast.
8b9633 No.15157822
>>15157821
The game died in less than 15 hours.
That has to be a record.
5cf3fd No.15157864
>>15157821
The only thing that disappoints me is that we are never going to see a game bomb even harder than Culling 2. We should savor this while it lasts. This puts Battleborn and Lawbreakers to shame so hard, goddamn.
99f426 No.15157868
>>15157864
At least Cliff Blazinga can rest happy knowing he's no longer the biggest failure any more now he's only the second biggest.
8b9633 No.15157869
>>15157864
This is why I'm surprised this thread isn't more active. This is an unbelievable failure.
b7d87c No.15157873
>>15157868
I'd pay good money to see what Randy, Cliff and the devs of this trainwreck could cook up together.
c4d3f6 No.15157889
>>15157821
it's liek8chan:^)
a2fa91 No.15157893
>>15157869
Well, part of it being such an unbelievable failure is that nobody fucking heard about it.
Zero advertising presence beyond “holy shit guys this game is DEAD.”
8b9633 No.15157902
>>15157893
It was probably a bad idea to announce a game the day before you release it.
Same reason Unravel 2 didn't do very well.
26de9c No.15158013
>>15157864
It really isn't as momentous when it's made by complete nobodies.
a997f2 No.15158170
>>15149954
>He usually plays shit or unplayable games
>for fun
I don't see how playing something that by definition isn't fun, is fun.
>>15157877
>going to reddit
You should have stayed there.
91a63e No.15158260
>>15157889
Why are you still here?
45320b No.15162003
>>15158260
To make you suffer.
819965 No.15162108
>>15158260
Just to suffer.
8b9633 No.15163940
>>15157640
He said he was going to refund it at the end of the video.
46f9d8 No.15172330
067ba3 No.15173076
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
This was unexpected.
rip hooktube
3accf1 No.15173583
>>15147489
>Only 1 hour played
Could have at least left it on while doing other shit to make it more believable.
93dcbe No.15173609
>>15147481
>I hope you fags are ready for some more shitty non-threads
bb289c No.15173731
>>15173076
make a webm nigger.
b2366e No.15173862
>>15173076
>Removing Culling 2 from store
>Refunding all Culling 2 buyers
>Going back to work on Culling 1
>Rolling back to old patch
I was expecting a "gamers are the real problem" but I'm surprised, even if this resuscitation only ends up with a week or two of this FotM coming back that'll be good enough.
ca4ed6 No.15174748
>>15173076
>Dev admitting his mistake
>In current year+3
Can't say I'm overjoyed, or even that I'd try their game, but surely that's reason to smile just a little bit.
b844da No.15174775
>>15173731
I'm on it nigger.
f158f9 No.15174830
>>15173076
Props to him god damn.
edd955 No.15174896
>>15173076
I had written this off as another case of developer hubris, but straight up shoving a game you spent probably several months developing under the rug to focus on giving people what actually want isn't an easy pill to swallow
7e85a8 No.15175423
>>15174811
>Pretending this hard that they worked hard on a garbage that looks like it was 100% made with UE4 community market assets
145ba2 No.15175444
>>15174811
Thank you for your service.
83d36b No.15175461
lol ive never heard of those shit-games
ff871a No.15175474
>>15149451
Just a shame it worked for Epic with Fornite. The base game they launched, after it was in development hell for years because they kept chasing the latest trend was hot garbage and a well deserved failure.
The shitty BR mode they slapped together in one weekend becoming the new Minecraft was no deserved.
0a9a40 No.15175485
>>15173076
I'm not interested in this game or the genre but honestly this was a good choice, I didn't expect something like this
ae4e09 No.15175490
>>15147489
The only valid reviews are negative ones.
ae4e09 No.15175499
>>15147481
I love me a good dumpster fire to warm my cold heart.
d16d64 No.15175516
>sequal gets completely removed and refunded
>they actually do what the community asks for and roll back the original
>free to play soon
I spent a great deal playing the culling back in the day with 250+ hours on record so heres hoping they don't fuck it up once again.
It being free to play soon is probably key and almost guarentees some odd hundred players online. I just wonder how they plan on monetizing the game now. Skins for cash? Lootcrates even? A level system with xp-boosts? Probably all of that.
It's the only BR game I ever had an interest in so I'll give it a shot again
0d4bfd No.15175522
>>15173076
>>15174811
Good shit Xaviant, you made a mistake and you own it. If only more devs would follow their example.
62b021 No.15175607
>>15175516
>>15174811
I played it a lot in Early Access too, it was fucking great. What does "Day 1" mean in the video though, I assume it means launch day? It was shit by the time it hit launch, it was rough when Early Access started, the sweet spot was somewhere in the middle. He even says no one was happy with it at launch and then talks about how everyone is falling in love with the "Day 1" version again now, I hope it isn't after they ruined blocking and made it less mindgamey.
695141 No.15175721
>>15147489
>for several months
They revealed the game 2 days before releasing it.
d16d64 No.15175800
>>15175607
The "new old" version coming soon will probably be shit at first but everyone needs to get back into it again.
It sounds to me like they just "recreate" ea-launch balance wise (and hopefully content wise) but with their updated graphics and stuff to then balance the game from there. So rather then ruining game mechanics they intent to listen to the community now. How long this takes and whether it's going to be successful or not is another question.
Last time I played was late 2016 if I recall correctly so I never got to experience the shit they added and the majority of mechanics they ruined (blocking was already utterly fucked at this point)
Looking at the store page right now makes me wonder if they add shit like the new map (which I never played) and stuff like lightning rounds and match events. If it was down to me I'd only have the one original map and the basics at first. No shenanigans. Airdrops and blue crates essentially.
>I hope it isn't after they ruined blocking and made it less mindgamey.
That's what they should focus on. The gameplay should be balanced and fun first and then we can talk about new shit. Finding the sweetspot for balance is tough which is why I think they want to start from scratch. They might very well roll back to a very successful balance patch, not sure. No doubt it would be before the fuckups.
With most devs I'd be worried because usually devs cling to every fucking piece of content they created. They just dumped a whole game though so I hope they give up on a lot of shit mechanics they added to the original also.
8b9633 No.15175964
>>15173076
>>15174811
They get major props for admitting a fuckup. It's rare to see devs admit they didn't listen to their fans and apologize.
d7ef48 No.15176131
>>15174811
>Took the sequel off of Steam
>Refunds for everyone who bought it
>Go back to working on their previous game their fanbase liked
W-what's the trick? There's no way that the devs will actually take responsability for his fuck up and not blame their audience
8b9633 No.15176139
>>15176131
They're like the antithesis of Hi-Rez.
1255b2 No.15176352
>>15147481
>screwing the balance, fucking with established mechanics, and ignoring or blindly following player feedback
I don't play these games but isn't this kinda hard not to do? I mean the other side of it is "not fixing the balance and reinforcing shit mechanics," not to mention that the last bit is kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of situation.
Even Blizzard, a multi-billion company with hundreds of QA testers fuck this up.
62b021 No.15176645
>>15175800
Here's hoping the first patch they do is take the melee/blocking mechanics way, way back then. I dropped it in EA long before launch intending to go back if they ever made it good again, they never did. The frantic early game was the best part, I could do without the gun airdrops I was winning every match with because it just wasn't as satisfying as crafted traps and machetes.