Note: Multiple updates at the bottom.
Sad news, Facepunch are no longer selling the Linux version of their survival game Rust [Official Site] after removing mentions of Linux support yesterday from their Steam page.
Linux support has been available in Rust since 2013, along with continued support during Early Access and after the official release earlier this year. It was a bit of a surprise that we got an email from a reader, to mention that the Steam store page for Rust was no longer showing the SteamOS/Linux icon or listing it in the system requirements.
Thinking it was a mistake, since nothing was announced, I reached to Facepunch to which they replied with:
Hey dude - yeah we stopped selling Rust for Linux.
I did request more information as to why and will update this article if I receive any further information. To be fair, they haven't had a lot of time to respond again yet, but I feel it's important to get the word out.
It's possible it's due to issues with the Unity game engine, which has suffered some nuisance problems with their Linux support lately. We've gone through black screens, no input in fullscreen and the latest being double-input issues—all issues that have plagued a number of games that use Unity. All of which have been solved in updated versions of Unity though. Still, it has become more of a hassle for developers to support us due to issues like this repeatedly coming up.
To be clear on something though, it might only mean that they're not actively advertising it as a Linux supported game, while still allowing Linux users to buy it and play it—something a few other developers do as well. I highly doubt they would actually remove the Linux version, after it being around for so long.
Really sad about this, we have an active community-run server with plenty of people enjoying themselves on it. Sin has livestreamed plenty of it on our Twitch Channel, purchased skins and all. With all the additions to the game, it was really becoming quite interesting. Even I was also going to be jumping back in soon, so this has me a little down as I did quite enjoy the game as well.
As always, please remain respectful in the comments. Issues like this can become quite heated, but let's not go throwing any insults around. Now is a time to show your support, not have a war of words.
Updates
Garry responded on Twitter and said this:
We stopped selling Rust on Linux because we won't/don't give it the QA support it needs. There are situations where there's a Unity Linux bug that pops up, and we ship with it - because it's the right decision for 99.99% of our players.
And while 60% of Linux users are fine with this, they understand their position in this world, it's probably not the right thing to act like it's fine. So while we're still going to ship Linux updates and keep it up to date.. we're not going to sell it anymore.
Also Linux Community - being abusive, demanding, rude to the few developers actually shipping games to your favourite OS isn't the way to go. It makes me regret ever shipping Linux versions.
I've said it before and I will say it again: Developers are human, people do need to understand that and not resort to throwing insults around right away. Even so, if you sell a game on any platform you should be doing QA on it—there's no excuse for not doing it.
Update #2 - Here's what another developer said on Reddit:
Linux is and will still be supported but the decision to remove Linux from purchase was mainly based on multiple issues in the current Unity version (2018.1.4).
We're currently unable to downgrade to a Unity version which corrects these Linux issues and we're unable to upgrade Unity to 2018.2 due to a number of new issues.
Linux is in a state of limbo in which we're unable to resolve, instead of selling a broken platform we decided to remove it from purchase but still offer it to existing players.
Once Linux is in a working state we'll review the decision.
Hat tip to Basiani for letting us know.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: noxQuoting: kalinDid that mean that i loose the ability to play that game(I already bought it)
Did they stop to support linux version for existing customers
In witch of previous cases I can ask for refund ?
We don't know yet. The only thing we know is that they removed their steamos icon, but the linux version is still there and playable.
The likely result is that they'll provide a linux client, but they will not offer support. Again, we don't know yet though and we'll have to wait for further clarification.
Not very playable for me. I experience crash before loading any server. Don't know what is the reason.
Quoting: kalinQuoting: noxQuoting: kalinDid that mean that i loose the ability to play that game(I already bought it)
Did they stop to support linux version for existing customers
In witch of previous cases I can ask for refund ?
We don't know yet. The only thing we know is that they removed their steamos icon, but the linux version is still there and playable.
The likely result is that they'll provide a linux client, but they will not offer support. Again, we don't know yet though and we'll have to wait for further clarification.
Not very playable for me. I experience crash before loading any server. Don't know what is the reason.
That's the nvidia bug.
Quoting: Guest-SNIP-So, I cannot answer for liam but I'll but my own view here:
Garry said that 3 years ago, and they've kept supporting linux despite it.
Does he like linux? Who knows. Does he find linux to be worthwhile for his game developers to target? Clearly, at least until these last issues with Unity and nvidia.
Don't take that old tweet and think of it as hate. It's a blunt, sarcastic guy that likes riling people up a bit. That's what he does.
Quoting: GuestFair enough, but if you want to go this route, find me a more recent quote of him taking that back or saying anything at all but negativity about Linux. If you can do that I will retract my statement and say publically I'm wrong about Garry and his attitude toward Linux.
So, you are the one saying he is toxic, you are the one who should provide the proof here as his entire twitter history is full of him being sarcastic about everything. However, I did find another very recent tweet for you. It's out of context, but it does halfway fill your requirement, as he is talking about both windows and linux:
Would love to drop windows and Linux m8
Other than that, he doesn't really seem to have any recent tweets that shows any hatred towards linux at all.
Quoting: noxHere is the thing though, with the nvidia problem and unity issues on top of that the linux version didn't make facepunch look good. And there is very little they can do about those issues. Dropping official support seems logical enough considering...
If the 0.5% takes up a significant portion of troubleshooting and fixing, well, it's just not logical to keep doing it.
They don't have to do a lot, out of report the problem to Nvidia and Unity (how many resources do you need for that?). In fact, Nvidia gave a workaround for the problem.
This is an old discussion, but when you buy software you don't only pay a license to play the game, you also pay for support. If the guy that sells this says something like "We don't test Linux versions because Linux community is way too small", then he should announce that on their store page.
Last edited by x_wing on 27 July 2018 at 7:38 pm UTC
Quoting: GuestSorry, but you're not stating facts at all. Garry has never outright said he doesn't like or hates Linux. Don't take random blunt Twitter posts as hate. I made that mistake before, don't be me.Quoting: noxQuoting: GuestFair enough, but if you want to go this route, find me a more recent quote of him taking that back or saying anything at all but negativity about Linux. If you can do that I will retract my statement and say publically I'm wrong about Garry and his attitude toward Linux.
So, you are the one saying he is toxic, you are the one who should provide the proof here as his entire twitter history is full of him being sarcastic about everything. However, I did find another very recent tweet for you. It's out of context, but it does halfway fill your requirement, as he is talking about both windows and linux:
Would love to drop windows and Linux m8
Other than that, he doesn't really seem to have any recent tweets that shows any hatred towards linux at all.
Your defending Garry for being outspoken and a jerk but you're condemning me because I'm just stating facts? That's kinda what it feels like here...
People (including me) talk random junk on Twitter all the time.
Cracking jokes and being blunt about something, do not equal that person hating something.
Quoting: GuestQuoting: noxQuoting: GuestFair enough, but if you want to go this route, find me a more recent quote of him taking that back or saying anything at all but negativity about Linux. If you can do that I will retract my statement and say publically I'm wrong about Garry and his attitude toward Linux.
So, you are the one saying he is toxic, you are the one who should provide the proof here as his entire twitter history is full of him being sarcastic about everything. However, I did find another very recent tweet for you. It's out of context, but it does halfway fill your requirement, as he is talking about both windows and linux:
Would love to drop windows and Linux m8
Other than that, he doesn't really seem to have any recent tweets that shows any hatred towards linux at all.
Your defending Garry for being outspoken and a jerk but you're condemning me because I'm just stating facts? That's kinda what it feels like here...
Not really, just pointing out that I found your requirement strange. At least I provided you with the most recent linux mentioning tweet I could find, which also says the exact thing about Windows.
Look, I'm not saying he is a great guy. I don't know. I just know that they've supported linux decently(or at least as bad as windows). However, if you take a few minutes of your time to read his tweets you'll see that he bashes everyone, everywhere, all the time.
If someone being sarcastic, liking to rile up people and fucking around is equal to hating linux, then alright, you have your view.
Main point: Old tweet, many tweets sarcastic about everything over the years, decent support regardless over the years. If he hates linux he isn't good at showing it.
QuoteWe stopped selling Rust on Linux because we won't/don't give it the QA support it needs. There are situations where there's a Unity Linux bug that pops up, and we ship with it - because it's the right decision for 99.99% of our players.And
QuoteAnd while 60% of Linux users are fine with this, they understand their position in this world, it's probably not the right thing to act like it's fine. So while we're still going to ship Linux updates and keep it up to date.. we're not going to sell it anymore.And
QuoteAlso Linux Community - being abusive, demanding, rude to the few developers actually shipping games to your favourite OS isn't the way to go. It makes me regret ever shipping Linux versions.Edit: Fixed wrong quote, added link.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 27 July 2018 at 7:44 pm UTC
Quoting: Guest-SNIP-If you read the tweets above you, you'll see that they are stopping selling it officially to Linux gamers as they can't give it the QA it needs. They'll be shipping it and keeping it up to date, but they don't officially support it.
That, to me, sounds like a decent reason. It's not based on hatred, it's based on logic.
He also states that the linux community should stop being abusive, demanding and rude to the developers who actually support us. Everyone should take that to heart.
EDIT: Saying something positive doesn't matter. You seemed convinced he hates linux, I argued against that. I never said he likes linux.
Last edited by nox on 27 July 2018 at 7:49 pm UTC
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