Beleaguered battle royale game The Culling has risen from the dead once more - despite apparently being canned for good last March - this time sporting a monetisation model that will require users to pay for the matches they want to play.

The Culling, a survival-themed last-man-standing affair from developer Xaviant, launched on PC and Xbox in October 2017 following a period of early access. Its distinctive take on the battle royale formula - incorporating scavenging, crafting, and trap-making - immediately earned it fans, but its post-launch fortunes were short-lived and a rapidly dwindling player base (caused in no small part by the meteoric rise of PUBG) saw Xaviant ending support mere months later.

Six months after that, Xaviant surprised dropped The Culling 2 on the world, and immediately felt the full force of a backlash from fans upset the developer had turned its attention to a sequel a little over nine months after its predecessor left Steam early access. Less that 48 hours after launch - which, in another case of unfortunate timing, coincided with the arrival of Fortnite's fifth season - The Culling 2's active userbase had plummeted to single digits.

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It's the game that, up until now, could never quite die: but this time The Culling is gone for real, as developer Xaviant has said the game will close its doors in May.

In a post on The Culling's website, director of operations Josh Van Veld explained the time had come to pull the plug.

"When we launched the Origins update and made the game free to play, our hope was that the revenue generated from in-app purchases would be enough to sustain our team and support ongoing development.

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The developer of battle royale game The Culling has re-released the first build of the original game following the disastrous launch of its sequel.

The Culling 2 released on Tuesday, July 10th, and was immediately besieged by series fans upset that developer Xaviant had turned its attention to a sequel a little over nine months after its generally well-received predecessor left Steam early access.

Its poor reception was reflected by its active user base. Mere hours after The Culling 2 released, users playing the game peaked at 249. It wasn't long before The Culling 2 had an average of just two players online - some considerable way below the 50 required for a single match. By way of contrast, the original Culling has an all-time peak of 12,622 active users.

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