Rust Hits It Big On Steam Early Access

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Rust Hits It Big On Steam Early Access


Rust has already earned more than half of what the famous Garry's Mod brought in over nine years.

Rust is pretty cool as alpha-state games go. It's still largely undeveloped and rough around the edges, but it's very playable and the completely unregulated inter-player dynamics can add up to some very intense, rewarding (and, yes, frustrating) moments. As it turns out, it's also a wildly lucrative venture for Garry Newman and Facepunch Studios, with nearly (and by now, probably over) 250,000 unit sales.

The famous Garry's Mod, a sandbox tool that lets users do all sorts of crazy things with the Source engine, has been around for a little over nine years; Rust has been around for a little over a month. Yet as long-lived and successful as Garry's Mod is, Rust is poised to blow it out of the water. "We never, ever expected anything to dwarf GMod's success," Newman told GamesIndustry International. "I did some rough maths this morning: in terms of profits, from sales and royalties, in a month Rust has made about 40 percent of what GMod has made in about nine years. We can't really believe it."

And that's not the end of it: In the week since the interview was done, that number has jumped even higher. "55% now :S," Newman tweeted earlier today.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/garrynewman/status/425196985034219520]

Newman acknowledged that the Early Access release of Rust essentially asks people to pay $20 to test the game for him, but pointed out that it's more or less the same thing that triple-A studios have been doing for quite awhile now. "Plenty of them have offers where if you preorder something you can get into the beta and play it early," he said. "It's obviously further down the line than most Early Access games are, but you're paying more, too. It's not that different."

Source: GamesIndustry International [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-01-17-the-mod-squad-facepunchs-garry-newman-on-rust]


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Atmos Duality

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*cue the deluge of comments hating Early Access*
G-mod is hilarious, though I admit, this is the first I've seen of Rust.

Looks like it's a sandbox game? Technical or specific? (technical being what vanilla G-Mod was, specific being more limited modes like Minecraft or those made with G-Mod like Prop Hunt)
 

AnthrSolidSnake

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Atmos Duality said:
*cue the deluge of comments hating Early Access*
G-mod is hilarious, though I admit, this is the first I've seen of Rust.

Looks like it's a sandbox game? Technical or specific? (technical being what vanilla G-Mod was, specific being more limited modes like Minecraft or those made with G-Mod like Prop Hunt)

Rust is sort of a combination of DayZ with crafting elements from what I've gathered. playing on servers with other people to fight or survive with (though I assume from the genre it's in, most player interaction will just be fighting)
 

AnthrSolidSnake

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Again, more content on how great Rust is as an Early Access game, and yet it's the one on Steam I refused to buy since I thought it looked boring compared to the others. Of course though, seeing as how the community of Nether is going, I'll probably be looking at getting Rust when it gets further into development.
 

RaikuFA

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I... don't understand GMod... PLEASE DON'T HIT ME!!!

I can understand Rust selling this quick, Penny Arcade did a 2 part comic on it(the latter one being my favorite in quite some time). Anytime PA promotes a game expect it to sell.

OT: I have rust, I don't know what to do, anyone want to help me?
 

Slash2x

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Rust is AMAZING compaired to other games. And there has been a sort of unwritten rule that many people have developed on many servers "do not kill the naked people" There have been MANY cases I have seen of players griefing other players for killing newbs. Now the newbs kill the SHIT out of each other! The people with guns usually just leave them alone/ laugh at them fighing over better gear. The persistant bodies and structures make it so logging out to avoid fights DOES NOT WORK. That alone gives it a boost over DayZ.
 

Denamic

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RaikuFA said:
I... don't understand GMod... PLEASE DON'T HIT ME!!!
Spawn bathtub. Attach spinning sword death contraption with lasers on the front, rockets on the back. Spawn horde of zombies in front of you. Enter bathtub. Launch.
Or build a trebuchet that launches explosive barrels and/or people.

I think it's more accurate to describe GMod as a toybox rather than a sandbox.
 

Exterminas

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Sep 22, 2009
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Yeah...

"The Triple-A-Industry does it, so it is okay!"

Is probably my new favourite horrible argument for business ethics.

My old favourite used to be "Well, we are not charging you any additional money for patches, so you have no right to demand them!"
 

Arkley

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I've been having a lot of fun with Rust, it's nice to see it doing so well. The developers are really honest, too. Just take a look at the website and you'll see them talking directly to their players and admitting things that most other devs wouldn't dare to admit, for example; directly admitting that the game started as a DayZ clone, that people are paying to help them test, etc.

Fortunately, the game is exactly what early access should be. It's unfinished but thoroughly playable; the game's buggy and features are missing, but even in its current state you can absolutely play a game from beginning to end in much the same way it'll be played when finished. Better still, the developers are involved and working hard and communicative.

I know lately it's the fashion to revolt against any kind of paid early access, but it isn't always a bad thing. It'd be nice to see people objectively examine the circumstances of each early access rather than just immediately hating it for simply existing, because Rust is doing everything right.
 

templar1138a

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They'd make a lot more if they had a single-player mode. I've read the reviews, and I'm not paying to get griefed when I have NOTHING to steal.
 

MCerberus

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Theory: If your first name starts with 'G' and your last name 'N', you will make all the money.

Anyway, I'm glad the AA game industry is still having some good success stories. A lot more new ideas than the big publishers while having the funding to deliver. This also lets me look back at the steam environment and remember a day when supporting Tripwire Interactive was a big risk.
 

Andy Chalk

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On principle I'm not a fan of paying to do someone's beta testing, but Rust is in a remarkably solid state even now. Yes, you're subject to the vagaries of alpha - bugs, exploits, missing features, server wipes, etc. - but the underlying foundation is so good that you can easily forget that you're playing something that's still a long way from release. Obviously this sort of gameplay isn't going to be for everyone, but it does what it does damn nicely.
 

hutchy27

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I just bought DayZ and Rust shall follow in a few months probably. I do game design and thus saying the game change throughout its development cycle should be interesting and hopefully helpful to me.
 

SnakeTrousers

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I really wish I'd bought this instead of the colossal disappointment that is DayZ standalone. Won't happen now, though, because that game has pretty much turned me off Early Access titles for the time being. I've never felt so stupid for buying a game before.
 

Karadalis

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Exterminas said:
Yeah...

"The Triple-A-Industry does it, so it is okay!"

Is probably my new favourite horrible argument for business ethics.

My old favourite used to be "Well, we are not charging you any additional money for patches, so you have no right to demand them!"
Yep.. as if its a good thing.

Last i checked indie developers where held in such a high praises because they did NOT pull the same BS as the triple A studios.
 

Hero in a half shell

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Slash2x said:
The persistant bodies and structures make it so logging out to avoid fights DOES NOT WORK. That alone gives it a boost over DayZ.
How on earth does anyone manage to keep themselves alive, or protect whatever they've built the first time they log out?

Do you just have to dig a hole and hide in it or what?
 

Coach Morrison

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Hero in a half shell said:
Slash2x said:
The persistant bodies and structures make it so logging out to avoid fights DOES NOT WORK. That alone gives it a boost over DayZ.
How on earth does anyone manage to keep themselves alive, or protect whatever they've built the first time they log out?

Do you just have to dig a hole and hide in it or what?
If you manage to build a house with a metal door, which does take quite a bit of resources, then someone will need c4 to get in and c4 isn't easy to get early on.

Alternatively make a shack, which isn't hard, and put a wooden door and sleep inside it. It takes around 70 hits with a good weapon to destroy the door or the shack and unless you are sleeping with good armor or next to boxes that look enticing most people won't have the patience to break it down, especially since hitting the shack leaves you open to being shot by anyone who might walk past.
 

bossfight1

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My friend recommended the game, and I've enjoyed it so far; easy to pick up (for someone who plays Minecraft), simple to figure out and makes other players into the most terrifying prospect I've seen in games for a long time.
 

Someone Depressing

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I haven't played it yet. I wonder if it has a level up system or something. Or guns. How could you make a gun if you're just supposed to be some guy?

I'm to lazy to play it, but it looks.. interesting. Like if you combined MineCraft and Haven and Hearth (You probably haven't heard of Haven and Hearth. Now you have. Please play it. You'll get what I mean. Like, the first ten minutes) or something, and it somehow sold.