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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.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: LeopardYou do understand what an "Update" is right? The article text was all up before Garry had properly responded and said any of that.Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: LeopardTalking junk as usual I see. Not what I am saying, not even hinting at that at all.Quoting: liamdaweQuoteI am personally disappointed in Liam Dawe for his statements against those that have been victimized by Garry over a number of years.No one has been "victimized", do you even understand the meaning of that word? No one has been singled out and Facepunch aren't being cruel.
QuoteLiam, you as a journalist have a responsibility to the reader, and those that have been victimized, to be fair, and this is lacking.No, as a journalist I have a responsibility to not be biased, to think outside our small box and think about all angles. Which I am doing.
Lol , with that pov ; we should never ask support for any game. Right?
Since we are minority?
Not talking junk actually but you're always doing this. At least be honest this time and beside with us , not with devs.
Facepunch dev clearly states he won't / he wasn't doing a QA regarding Linux builds. And you're saying that is understandable due to low market share.
Than it must be also true for all devs too , since market share is not specific to Rust. It is on nearly every game.
So TL DR ; you said that is understandable due to low market share. So that is also understandable for all other games too?
Correct me if i'm wrong to think like that.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: liamdaweI'm just deciding not to take it as personally as some are. Nothing more, nothing less.
I've always been realistic about Linux gaming and some people choose to be the opposite.
Totally understand things can get emotional, but I won't have people call out my integrity for not sending abuse to a developer.
As it probably ought to be. In my case, I am taking it as an affront. Why? Because I work in that industry as well as a few others and I really do take umbrage at bullsh*t being flung about- which is what that was... X-D
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: LeopardYou do understand what an "Update" is right? The article text was all up before Garry had properly responded and said any of that.Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: LeopardTalking junk as usual I see. Not what I am saying, not even hinting at that at all.Quoting: liamdaweQuoteI am personally disappointed in Liam Dawe for his statements against those that have been victimized by Garry over a number of years.No one has been "victimized", do you even understand the meaning of that word? No one has been singled out and Facepunch aren't being cruel.
QuoteLiam, you as a journalist have a responsibility to the reader, and those that have been victimized, to be fair, and this is lacking.No, as a journalist I have a responsibility to not be biased, to think outside our small box and think about all angles. Which I am doing.
Lol , with that pov ; we should never ask support for any game. Right?
Since we are minority?
Not talking junk actually but you're always doing this. At least be honest this time and beside with us , not with devs.
Facepunch dev clearly states he won't / he wasn't doing a QA regarding Linux builds. And you're saying that is understandable due to low market share.
Than it must be also true for all devs too , since market share is not specific to Rust. It is on nearly every game.
So TL DR ; you said that is understandable due to low market share. So that is also understandable for all other games too?
Correct me if i'm wrong to think like that.
Really Liam?
QuoteNo, as a journalist I have a responsibility to not be biased, to think outside our small box and think about all angles. Which I am doing.
You said it to response for other user.
Like you said , i'm just thinking outside of our small box and decided when it comes to asking support ; right way is the Facepunch taking now.
We are not on Ars Technica Liam , we're on Gaming on Linux. I'm not saying that we should send him hate e-mails or similar. I'm completely against it.
If you are thinking as a journalist outside of small box , that this very website is also pointless.
1 Likes, Who?
Some Questions:
Anybody knows what this means for Gifts? (I still have a Rust copy in my inventory. I bought it weeks ago.)
Can the Linux version of Rust still be played via the Family View?
Do they still support Linux for Rust servers?
Last edited by 1xok on 27 July 2018 at 8:50 pm UTC
Anybody knows what this means for Gifts? (I still have a Rust copy in my inventory. I bought it weeks ago.)
Can the Linux version of Rust still be played via the Family View?
Do they still support Linux for Rust servers?
Last edited by 1xok on 27 July 2018 at 8:50 pm UTC
0 Likes
Quoting: svartalfSure, you as a long time developer probably have a lot more insights than I do about actually making and shipping games (and yes I remember who you are ;)). I value your opinion, as I do for anyone. I just don't like resorting to slinging mud at people.Quoting: liamdaweI'm just deciding not to take it as personally as some are. Nothing more, nothing less.
I've always been realistic about Linux gaming and some people choose to be the opposite.
Totally understand things can get emotional, but I won't have people call out my integrity for not sending abuse to a developer.
As it probably ought to be. In my case, I am taking it as an affront. Why? Because I work in that industry as well as a few others and I really do take umbrage at bullsh*t being flung about- which is what that was... X-D
Quoting: GuestI understand what you're saying, as I said I'm pretty sad about it, but when you're literally unable to provide the service people expect because of Unity and GPU driver bugs (both of which are confirmed issues with Unity and NVIDIA I might add) - is it right to say it's supported and continue advertising it, to let people down when they buy it?Quoting: liamdaweQuoteI am personally disappointed in Liam Dawe for his statements against those that have been victimized by Garry over a number of years.No one has been "victimized", do you even understand the meaning of that word? No one has been singled out and Facepunch aren't being cruel.
QuoteLiam, you as a journalist have a responsibility to the reader, and those that have been victimized, to be fair, and this is lacking.No, as a journalist I have a responsibility to not be biased, to think outside our small box and think about all angles. Which I am doing.
Since his product is not free in any sense, and has been paid for, not supporting it properly from the beginning or removing support after the product has been paid for is victimizing those that have paid. Those that have paid are entitled to it. It's a contract, and he has not had a good track record of keeping up his end. I know he has stated he will continue to update it but you can expect that means that we should not expect it to work either, and he can point to the fact that it's unsupported. So in effect, we have paid for a product that they no longer wish to deliver on. The issue here is that we paid for it, just like everyone else.
Your article on the subject is nearly non-biased, however, the responses in the comments have not been. You should not deride the victims for the actions of the perpetrator.
I do appreciate your moderation approval of my last comment, I actually did not expect that actually.
Personally, I'm going to contact Valve and see if there's a refund process for an action like this. Why should Facepunch have the money for a product they aren't going to support. Something like a 50% refund would be fair, since it was supported and I did play it, but can't guarantee that in the future. I suggest everyone else do the same as well.
To be clear on my comments, up until just now there were all posted before Garry made the Twitter statements. Obviously I'm not impressed if they weren't doing any QA.
Moderation happens for new users (or users who have never posted). I won't remove comments that have a different opinion to mine (unless they're pretty extreme if you know what I mean), I'm able to appreciate the opposing side and change my mind if I feel I should - I'm not above being wrong at all in any situation.
0 Likes
Quoting: LeopardI'll be honest, at this point you've lost me. I literally have no idea what you're talking about any more...Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: LeopardYou do understand what an "Update" is right? The article text was all up before Garry had properly responded and said any of that.Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: LeopardTalking junk as usual I see. Not what I am saying, not even hinting at that at all.Quoting: liamdaweQuoteI am personally disappointed in Liam Dawe for his statements against those that have been victimized by Garry over a number of years.No one has been "victimized", do you even understand the meaning of that word? No one has been singled out and Facepunch aren't being cruel.
QuoteLiam, you as a journalist have a responsibility to the reader, and those that have been victimized, to be fair, and this is lacking.No, as a journalist I have a responsibility to not be biased, to think outside our small box and think about all angles. Which I am doing.
Lol , with that pov ; we should never ask support for any game. Right?
Since we are minority?
Not talking junk actually but you're always doing this. At least be honest this time and beside with us , not with devs.
Facepunch dev clearly states he won't / he wasn't doing a QA regarding Linux builds. And you're saying that is understandable due to low market share.
Than it must be also true for all devs too , since market share is not specific to Rust. It is on nearly every game.
So TL DR ; you said that is understandable due to low market share. So that is also understandable for all other games too?
Correct me if i'm wrong to think like that.
Really Liam?
QuoteNo, as a journalist I have a responsibility to not be biased, to think outside our small box and think about all angles. Which I am doing.
You said it to response for other user.
Like you said , i'm just thinking outside of our small box and decided when it comes to asking support ; right way is the Facepunch taking now.
We are not on Ars Technica Liam , we're on Gaming on Linux. I'm not saying that we should send him hate e-mails or similar. I'm completely against it.
If you are thinking as a journalist outside of small box , that this very website is also pointless.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: LeopardFacepunch dev clearly states he won't / he wasn't doing a QA regarding Linux builds. And you're saying that is understandable due to low market share.
There's a reason why I've been commenting on this.
The whole, we're not/won't do QA is bullshit. Pure and simple. QA is a function of the product as a whole. If you're not doing proper QA on all of it, you're doing it wrong. On an engine like Unity, Unreal, Crytek, etc. you exchange a bit of peak performance for an abstraction layer. Pure and simple. It's supposed to be almost largely 1 GAME that way. But there's potential for failures in the engine if someone hasn't exercised it properly on the target in question. That equates engineering analysis on that target to be fed back to the engine developer so they can fix it or incorporate the fixes YOU found when digging a bit deeper. You should have a moderately dedicated staff to DO that work and be able to handle any of the platforms and be able to do it as needed and per priority. If they don't have time to do that, what are they facing under Windows?
But it does require work on things. If they can't and won't do the work...was it really all that good a game?
I'd opine, "NOT".
Is it a symptom of much worse going on? Yeah...actually, it is.
Quoting: LeopardThan it must be also true for all devs too , since market share is not specific to Rust. It is on nearly every game.
Hardly. I need only point to myself or the likes of Feral Interactive to show that this was bullshit.
Which is why I am bitching right now about all of this. It's lame on their part, really. Someone earlier on pinned it. Facepunch thought they could just click a button and crank out Linux binaries and not QA it at all. Heh. If you're not as much engineering driven, you're in for a nasty, nasty surprise. I'll bet they're overwhelmed with the WINDOWS bugs.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: liamdaweSure, you as a long time developer probably have a lot more insights than I do about actually making and shipping games (and yes I remember who you are ;)). I value your opinion, as I do for anyone. I just don't like resorting to slinging mud at people.
Good. I'd hoped you'd remembered. :-D
I agree, mudslinging is inappropriate. Having said this... I'm not. There's a bit of justification, if only in legitimate IRE going on here. They just have opinion, where I've some experience and am being selective about the commentary, even if it IS ranting. X-D
I do hope my negotiations pan out. It'll mean a few rather wicked things to transpire. But then, I've had a few false starts on things in the past. I just wish that me and my partner in crime on the Myth trilogy franchise could get Take2 to wise up on things and remember they actually OWN that stuff... Be even more fun then.
Last edited by svartalf on 27 July 2018 at 9:03 pm UTC
0 Likes
Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: LeopardI'll be honest, at this point you've lost me. I literally have no idea what you're talking about any more...Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: LeopardYou do understand what an "Update" is right? The article text was all up before Garry had properly responded and said any of that.Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: LeopardTalking junk as usual I see. Not what I am saying, not even hinting at that at all.Quoting: liamdaweQuoteI am personally disappointed in Liam Dawe for his statements against those that have been victimized by Garry over a number of years.No one has been "victimized", do you even understand the meaning of that word? No one has been singled out and Facepunch aren't being cruel.
QuoteLiam, you as a journalist have a responsibility to the reader, and those that have been victimized, to be fair, and this is lacking.No, as a journalist I have a responsibility to not be biased, to think outside our small box and think about all angles. Which I am doing.
Lol , with that pov ; we should never ask support for any game. Right?
Since we are minority?
Not talking junk actually but you're always doing this. At least be honest this time and beside with us , not with devs.
Facepunch dev clearly states he won't / he wasn't doing a QA regarding Linux builds. And you're saying that is understandable due to low market share.
Than it must be also true for all devs too , since market share is not specific to Rust. It is on nearly every game.
So TL DR ; you said that is understandable due to low market share. So that is also understandable for all other games too?
Correct me if i'm wrong to think like that.
Really Liam?
QuoteNo, as a journalist I have a responsibility to not be biased, to think outside our small box and think about all angles. Which I am doing.
You said it to response for other user.
Like you said , i'm just thinking outside of our small box and decided when it comes to asking support ; right way is the Facepunch taking now.
We are not on Ars Technica Liam , we're on Gaming on Linux. I'm not saying that we should send him hate e-mails or similar. I'm completely against it.
If you are thinking as a journalist outside of small box , that this very website is also pointless.
Saying or at least implying that " Linux support pulled due to X facts but that is understandable " is not suitable for a Linux gaming website imo.
Sure , we are small and we're lucky to have so many games but that shouldn't mean when a negative thing occurs like this ; normalizing it is not helpful.
Then how other developers keep being synced and supporting Windows , Mac , Linux same time? Either that must be a some sort of magic or that is simply that Facepunch's situation is out of excuses.
This is not Kotaku , we are here for a reason. If i would like to see Windows point of view when it comes to Linux , i wouldn't be here.
5 Likes, Who?
I'm very sad about this.
Had so much fun playing Rust.
One of my favourite Linux native games.
Hope they change their mind about Linux support on the final release.
Had so much fun playing Rust.
One of my favourite Linux native games.
Hope they change their mind about Linux support on the final release.
5 Likes, Who?
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