Battle Royale games are pretty much the hottest trend in gaming right now, and if you aren’t playing PUBG or Fortnite then you’re sorely missing out on hours/days/weeks/a lifetime of highly addictive fun.
Although the big-names in the Battle Royale genre are racking up the dough for developers, not every multiplayer last-man-standing game has made the headlines for the right reasons.
The Culling 2, a Battle-Royale-style multiplayer from American studio Xaviant, launched less than a week ago, but it’s already virtually unplayable due to a complete lack of interest from gamers.
The game’s almost non-existent user base means it’s proving really difficult to get a proper game off the ground, meaning more players are giving up and just letting the tumbleweed roll across the maps.
In a series of cringe-worthy tweets the teams behind the game desperately tried to fix the many problems encountered at launch.
Launch is always a bit rocky, but we’re navigating the waters as best we can.
Xbox players are experiencing some lobby issues but our team is working to resolve them as swiftly as possible.
If you encounter other issues, feel free to let us know here at support! pic.twitter.com/s62ZvVFSd8
— The Culling Support (@Culling_Support) July 10, 2018
The problems initially started off with “lobby issues,” and @Culling_Support tweeted: “Launch is always a bit rocky, but we’re navigating the waters as best we can.
“Xbox players are experiencing some lobby issues but our team is working to resolve them as swiftly as possible.”
So .. uh.. today’s launch went exactly as expected… huh? No bugs, bumps or issues at all..
Let’s try again tomorrow, shall we pic.twitter.com/T5zS0vLc0B
— The Culling 2 (@TheCullingGame) July 10, 2018
Trying to make light of the situation, the official Twitter page for the games, @TheCullingGame wrote: “So…uh…today’s launch went exactly as expected…huh? No bugs, bumps or issues at all…
“Let’s try again tomorrow shall we?”
But the sorry situation didn’t seem to get any better, as frustrated players flocked to Steam to leave less-than-favourable reviews of their latest download.
A Steam user by the name of Fairlight stated: “I stubbed my toe on the way to install this game. It was the most enjoyable part of the experience.”
Fairlight wasn’t the only one to leave a negative review, and currently the game holds a “Very Negative” rating on Steam – a pretty difficult feat to achieve.
Even post-launch the game still doesn’t seem to picking up favour as players struggle to get a game going with 50-person match sizes and larger maps than the game’s predecessor, The Culling.
Reviewing The Culling 2 for IGN, Steven Petite writes: “It took three matches filled with endless running, picking up guns I wouldn’t end up shooting, and a whole lot of silence before I saw another living soul in [the game].”
He then went on to call-out the download’s “massive mechanical issues and ugly presentation.”
According to SteamCharts, the all-time peak for the game stands at just 249 players, a massive drop from the 12,622 all-time peak set by the first game in the series.
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.
— Xaviant (@Xaviant) July 12, 2018
Taking to Twitter to address the lack of players and the lack of interest in the game, studio Xaviant tweeted: “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.”
The future might be uncertain for Xaviant and The Culling, but hopefully they’ll be able to keep their head above water in the very competitive and popular world of Battle Royale games.