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.
And I don't believe Linux users are more vocal than users of other platforms in general. But I do believe that lack of QA leads to more pain for those users which fuels the flames. If your product has different quality on different platforms, those users will sound off accordingly. Ask developers with great Linux support if they think of us as toxic and they will tell you otherwise.
Eat your own dog food.
Quoting: liamdaweLinux 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)Added to the article.[/quote]
....
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.
This is really good news, I'm one of those that bought the game and was never able to play it but also never refunded hopping that one day will be fixed, just hope they will use beta option on steam.
But I never seen so much hate in GOL as in this thread, relax, life is short, enjoy it
Liam as a journalist you already new that this post would be a wildfire, just suggesting that sometimes you should block comments in some articles :), freedom of speech sometimes can be really annoying.
a.) His tweet implies that he only gets treated "abusive, demanding, rude" by the linux community. I am sure he gets , he would get the same kind of mails if he would provide the same kind of quality for windows from the windows crowd (most likely even worse). Would he than write the same as a tweet towards his 99% player base?
b.) I am ok with their decision determined by their QA during game development. If you can't (? aren't willing to ?) test basic functionality (we are talking currently about loading a level) on a free os, than it is most likely better to not make your customer have a bad experience on the platform.
Btw thank you for providing the statement of the other dev. He seems to know how to communicate such decision properly. If you ever want liam you really should make an article about , why some dev's are loved by the linux community and praised -> flibit / ryan and many more and supported like hell and other dev's aren't. I am sure you will find out that all those dev's made mistakes already but there is a huge difference between how they handle linux and their mistakes in public.
So while asking the linux community to handle the dev's which support them the right way i would find it only fair to ask the dev's who want to provide linux ports the same and a expressed -> "i don't like this community , i can't handle them , i don't want to handle them , i don't want to be bothered with this os cause i don't earn enough money on it" isn't the best base to communicate with people from this community.
Last edited by Glog78 on 28 July 2018 at 10:17 am UTC
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.
Personally, I've never being insulting or bad to devs and I'm not the only one Linux user who is correct. Beside, Windows community isn't really better when read some Steam forums and recently about DRM Denuvo games, however, no devs told they're abusive or insulting community :O I'm sorry to take that kind of example but that's like saying that each single German was a Nazis during the second worldwide war, while they weren't all Nazis.
I think that devs should stop this excuse... there are bad people in every groups, please devs you shouldn't say that Linux community is insulting and abusive, that's childish answer... This is really a poor and easy excuse, plus it makes good Linux users feeling bad about those words since we aren't all disrespectful. :(
Last edited by Shinikio on 28 July 2018 at 10:29 am UTC
If developers think this side of the Linux gaming community is the norm, I wonder why they would even consider a Linux release at all.
Don't bother replying, I'm not subscribing to this comment thread and I hope Liam locks this down asap...
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI don't know anything about this Garry guy, I don't have anything against him, and I don't mind his comments about Linux. I'm willing to accept the idea that he's blunt, outspoken, sarcastic, enjoys stirring up controversy and whatnot (which, OK, if he was operating in my social milieu would probably be taken as "he's a jerk", but I can deal with the concept that social environments differ). All fine.
What strikes me as weird is him then saying stuff likeQuoteAlso 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.
Hang on, mate, isn't that just the Linux community being blunt, outspoken and sarcastic, maybe a little controversial? Suddenly if it's someone else being a bit forthright, that's not OK and he gets to be what he would no doubt call a snowflake? If you're going to be insisting others have a thick skin, you should maybe cultivate one of your own. Contrariwise, if someone's going to insist that everyone be sweet and nice and polite to them, then perhaps they should put a rein on their blunt outspoken sarcasm. One set of rules, friend. To put it the old fashioned way, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
You make a really good point. One is tempted to use the word "hypocritical" about his statement.
It comes as shock to them no doubt when it doesnt actually work its the reason nvidia wont embrace open source for linux is his constant rants and actively literally telling the linux team to "fuck off" in person. I ll break it down you cant do stuff like that not if you actually want people to develop games for your platform,swearing death threats etc for not bringing a game to linux.
It's also a shitty thing to do just behave like a fucking person(not a fanboy) and if you write on twitter be respectful you may find it leads to being more open to linux ports or at least explaining why they are not supporting linux if they say they something like they would consider it if there was demand, post it on sites like this get people letting them know they would love it to come to linux etc.
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