Rust for Linux Axed, Players Refunded

There aren’t many great games for Linux, and now there’s another one to count out. Facepunch Studio is so unsatisfied with how its survival game Rust goes in Linux version that it decided to drop it at all.

How Rust for Linux Rusted

Though it’s not that common for studios to drop supports for its projects, unless the platform itself comes to a shutdown (like it was with, say, Windows Phone), Linux version of Rust has been seriously ill for long.

It’s been unavailable on Steam for about a year, taken off sale, but those who had already purchased the game could keep playing it. The number of active players, though, has dramatically decreased and now looks neglectable for the publisher. It’s only 217 active players using Linux client the last month, along with 2414 Mac users and 227,842 of those on Windows.

In the previous blog post the developer expressed some hope that it can be solved by splitting off Linux version and shifting its support to maintenance mode. But now it seems unreasonable, and Facepunch Studio prefers to make refunds. It won’t be too expensive, because Linux community of players is rather small when compared to those on Macs or Window PCs.

If you want to keep playing Rust on Linux despite all this, you need to get it off Steam and connect to Rust Dedicated Server. Another saving option is installing Wine and running the Windows version under it, using Proton to grant compatibility.

How to Get Your Refund

Facepunch refunds the full cost of the game to anyone who has at least once played it after purchasing. It doesn’t matter whether the player has a version for other platforms, or for how many hours they have been playing Rust. The sum is just, though it won’t be enough to purchase a Windows license, let alone switching to Mac.

If you are one of those unlucky few, you better wait for some time until Steam introduces its improved system of refunding. It’s also recommended to run the Linux version at least once to avoid detection issues and to make sure you’ll be refunded.