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PayPalFacepunch Studios developer Garry Newman tweeted out yesterday about how Rust [Steam] has done in terms of refunds, turns out it's quite a lot.
Added sales stats to our backend today. These are Rust's real Steam Refund figures. pic.twitter.com/IhjUsJUN9N
— Garry Newman (@garrynewman) June 28, 2017
For those don't wish to view Twitter:
So they've had over four million dollars in refunds, which is about 6% of the copies they've sold (going by this reply). That shouldn't be seen as entirely lost income though, since a lot of people will be using refunds in place of a demo. Since the refunds system, many people (myself included) are more likely to pick up a bunch of games they wouldn't normally to test them out, since there's less chance of losing your money to something broken or just outright bad.
When asked about the main reasons given for the refunds, in reply to a PC Gamer editor on Twitter, Garry said "Not fun followed by bad performance - which is pretty fair I think". It's nice to know that Garry is not only open about these kinds of things, but he's also very down to earth about it and understands the reasoning.
On the Linux side, I wouldn't be surprised if a breakdown per-platform showed more refunds on Linux compared to Windows. Every time I try out Rust myself, it's broken in some way. Right now for example, the game doesn't register any input unless in Windowed mode.
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That is sad but good I guess. I always hoped it would become stable and have some really thoughtful updates. The idea of the game interested me but the lack of Linux support kept me from buying it.. that and word of mouth about how the game isn't fun for newbies.
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This is more a measure of success. Apparently 6% refunds is a pretty normal number. And if 6% adds up to 4.4 million, you're doing amazingly well.
4 Likes, Who?
I had a lot of fun with this a few years ago, but then everything broke in an update, it wassn't fixed for months, and when it did finally work again, the performance was terrible. Eventually I lost interest and moved on to other games.
It's a shame, as it had so much potential.
It's a shame, as it had so much potential.
1 Likes, Who?
That shouldn't be seen as entirely lost income though
It should not be seen as lost income in any way, ever, at least not for games that are longer than 2 hours.
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lucifertdark 29 Jun 2017
I don't see this as something to be proud of, any refunds at all should be seen as a failure on the developers part. Why are 329,000 people unhappy enough with the game to want a refund? He doesn't care cause he doesn't have to deal with them now they've had a refund.
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I don't see this as something to be proud of, any refunds at all should be seen as a failure on the developers part. Why are 329,000 people unhappy enough with the game to want a refund? He doesn't care cause he doesn't have to deal with them now they've had a refund.I disagree.
For one, it shows Valve's system works for a lot of people.
Also, a refund doesn't suddenly mean a developer or a game is a failure. It can be a simple case of people testing it on a lower-end computer but not working enough to their liking. There's many reasons like that you could pull out of a hat to explain it. It doesn't suddenly mean it's failing though, it's not black and white like that.
6 Likes, Who?
"the game doesn't register any input unless in Windowed mode"
I've seen that with more Linux ports.
The developers for the wine-making game Terroir have been trying to figure out what causes it but are as of yet at a loss on it, as far as I am aware.
Last edited by Maki on 29 Jun 2017 at 1:24 pm UTC
I've seen that with more Linux ports.
The developers for the wine-making game Terroir have been trying to figure out what causes it but are as of yet at a loss on it, as far as I am aware.
Last edited by Maki on 29 Jun 2017 at 1:24 pm UTC
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I play this game on linux since 2014 on linux (since rust legacy). the 2 problems i've got : "input unless in windowed mode" and cannot connect on modded server if i launch game with my locale (Fr_FR_utf8). i launch the game in windowed mode and i put a kwin rules for fullscreen and i put my locale in EN.
performance as the same as windows, The game is very heavy. gary not love linux but Since he said that, there isn't very little big bug for me.
I just regret that the vulkan support isn't functional
Last edited by jerom3 on 29 Jun 2017 at 2:15 pm UTC
performance as the same as windows, The game is very heavy. gary not love linux but Since he said that, there isn't very little big bug for me.
I just regret that the vulkan support isn't functional
Last edited by jerom3 on 29 Jun 2017 at 2:15 pm UTC
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Mountain Man 29 Jun 2017
This game was pretty much a scam from the beginning. I love how they wasted backers' money for the first two-years before scrapping the whole thing and asking for even more money so they could rewrite the game from scratch. That kind of thing would never happen if a developer was held accountable, which is one reason why I despise the whole "crowdfunding" phenomenon.
4 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man 29 Jun 2017
I don't see this as something to be proud of, any refunds at all should be seen as a failure on the developers part. Why are 329,000 people unhappy enough with the game to want a refund? He doesn't care cause he doesn't have to deal with them now they've had a refund.That's the failure of crowdfunding and "early access". It's free money as far as the developers are concerned, so let people have their refunds. What does the developer care?
3 Likes, Who?
6% only in refund, they are doing just fine! 
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OLucasZanella 30 Jun 2017
Would've done the same if I hadn't surpassed the 2 hours by looking at a blank screen and hoping it would load.
1 Likes, Who?
jasondaigo 30 Jun 2017
that windowed mode thing is around for a long time now, really sad; i wanna point out (again) that if u are on mate u can also just use the fullscreen shortcut set in mate settings as workaround
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Would've done the same if I hadn't surpassed the 2 hours by looking at a blank screen and hoping it would load.
It's not an absolute limit, you can still try. Maybe send them a link to an article that it's been broken many times.
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I don't buy games from this guy
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/garry-newman-of-rust-and-garrys-mod-regrets-supporting-linux.6565
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/garry-newman-of-rust-and-garrys-mod-regrets-supporting-linux.6565
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Would've done the same if I hadn't surpassed the 2 hours by looking at a blank screen and hoping it would load.The only reason I have never refunded a Steam game is because I never think of it. Rust is a game that I should have refunded. I feel hopeful for it and I think it will be fun, but I'm not going to upgrade my hardware for an unfinished game. (Same goes for ARK.) What I should have done was try it out for a half hour or so and refund it after experiencing bad performance. I can always buy it again 6-12 months later assuming there will be some major optimization patches.
1 Likes, Who?
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