When Garry Newman and Facepunch Studios released Rust on Steam, they warned players of the many bugs plaguing the Steam Early Access release. Despite their caution, Rust managed to sell over 250, 000 copies in just a few months. When speaking with Gameindustry.biz, Newman explained Rust's immediate, unexpected success and what it means for the studio.
Rust sold over 250,000 copies, and it is already position to pass Newman's previous game, Garry's Mod. Garry's Mod generated over 22 million in revenue during its nine years of release, keeping busy both players and animators with its Source Engine tools.
Even with the success behind Garry's Mod, Rust's open world primitive survivability already generated "40 per cent of what GMod has made in about nine years." The studio never thought something could trump the success of the aimless Source mod, but Rust is already on pace to become Facepunch Studios' most successful title.
Rust finds itself naturally in competition with other open world survival games like DayZ. Although Rust focuses on player exploration to find places for shelter and items for survival, Rust's zombies are drawing unwanted comparisons. "We really wanted to get rid of them before we launched on Steam, but kind of failed, because we didn't want people reviewing it as just another zombie survival game," explained Newman.
Even with a large game like Rust, Newman and the rest of the development team continue to work on multiple projects. "To be honest, we've got about four or five other projects on the go right now! As long as Rust pays our wages we're going to keep working on it."
Players can purchase Rust on Steam now through the Early Access program.