Battle royale sequel The Culling 2 is happening

Developer Xaviant has announced that it's beavering away on The Culling 2, the sequel to its troubled battle royale title that arrived on the scene way before Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds dominated the genre.

The Culling clearly had a lot of ambition, although it was marred by development issues. The game originally launched on Early Access back in March 2016 and saw a full launch in October the following year.

At this point, PUBG was gathering pace and Epic Games had only just announced it was creating a battle royale mode for Fortnite. However, as little as two months later, Xaviant confirmed that it had 'no future updates planned for The Culling,' effectively putting the final nail in the coffin.

The writing may have been on the wall anyway, as its player count peak had dwindled significantly; it attracted just 73 gamers not long after launch, down from around 12,000 during its Early Access days.

Clearly, Xaviant is determined to make another go at it, although this time the competition is really heating up. PUBG and Fortnite are both pulling in millions of players, so it's going to be difficult to make a dent in the battle royale market.

A release date for The Culling 2 has yet to be confirmed.