Xaviant Games announces The Culling, which is a video game take on the "fight to the death" arena scenarios depicted in films such as Battle Royale and The Hunger Games.

The popularity of films like Battle Royale and The Hunger Games has resulted in mods for various pre-existing games that attempt to replicate the premise of those movies. Now Xaviant Games is stepping forward to release a title that is built from the ground-up to feature those fights to the death in a new Steam Early Access game called The Culling.

The Culling will hit Steam Early Access on March 8th, with its full release date and other possible platforms yet to be announced. Billed as a multiplayer survival game, The Culling clearly takes inspiration from the aforementioned Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, pitting players against one another in a harsh environment as they try to be the last competitor standing.

Battles in The Culling will consist of 16 players, who will all have 20 minutes to compete. Players are encouraged to explore their environment, scavenge for items, craft weapons, build traps for their unsuspecting foes, and, of course, attempt to kill one another.

All of this and more is outlined in the game's announcement trailer, which from the looks of things, suggests the fights can get pretty brutal. Check out pre-alpha footage of The Culling in the trailer below:

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We've already seen this Battle Royale fight to the death concept in video games before, but mostly as mods released for pre-existing titles. Xaviant has named mods released for H1Z1 and DayZ as direct inspirations, but it's a concept that has been explored in other titles as well, in a more official capacity.

One example that springs to mind is ARK: Survival Evolved's Survival of the Fittest mode. That mode, like The Culling, has players compete in an arena-style environment in a fight to the death. However, The Culling has an advantage over ARK in that it was built from the ground-up to utilize this style of gameplay.

While The Culling has that unique advantage over its potential competition, there are questions about how deep the experience can get. It's unknown at this point if there will be multiple arenas to fight in, how complex the gameplay mechanics will be, and how easy it will be for people to pick up and play. There are many factors that could make or break The Culling, so it will be interesting to see what the initial response to the game is when it hits Steam Early Access next month.

Are you interested in The Culling? Will you be downloading the game when it becomes available through Steam Early Access? Have you played any other similar titles in the past? Leave us your thoughts on The Culling in the comments below.

The Culling will be available on Steam Early Access beginning March 8th.