“Think of it more like we’re leaving Prototyping and entering Alpha.”
After over 4 years of being in Early Access on Steam, the survival game Rust is moving to the next stage in its development.
Announced in an official blog post Rust will no longer be an Early Access game as of February 8, 2018.
The post clarifies this doesn’t mean the game is finished yet and urges players to “Think of it more like we’re leaving Prototyping and entering Alpha.”
Facepunch Studios also promises to keep releasing updates, though they will be on a monthly, rather than weekly, to ensure greater stability. There will also be a different version of Rust available, similar to a public test server, which will be updated daily but may not be as stable.
“Please try not to compare the game to some other finished game or some idealised version you have in your head. Compare the game now to how it was when we entered Early Access. That’s the delta that we feel qualifies us to leave Early Access,” Facepunch’s Garry Newman wrote.
This change will also see an increase in price from the early access cost of $19.99 USD to $34.99 USD.
If you’ve yet to jump into Rust it might help you to know there are a few servers running an unofficial Battle Royal game mode similar to PUBG.
Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Facebook,Twitter, and Twitch.