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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.
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Liam Dawe Jul 27, 2018
Quoting: LeopardSaying 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.
I respect your opinion, but I completely disagree. I can understand something, while still not being happy about it.

Quoting: LeopardSure , 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.
I'm not normalizing anything.

Quoting: LeopardThen 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.
Every game is different.

Quoting: LeopardThis 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.
Again, you're not making any sense. Everything I write is from the point of view of someone who has been using Linux since he was 15, I'm turning 30 on Monday. I've used Linux for my entire adult life, nothing about my point of view is from Windows.
svartalf Jul 27, 2018
Quoting: GuestUnity3D is not known for good QA as well with regard to Linux, however, they usually eventually address their issues in future updates. Nvidia has had it's ups and downs as well. These things are to be expected and really nothing new. Mature software doesn't and shouldn't rely on the bleeding edge of engine and library releases for this reason. You wait for major releases to stabilize before you base your code around it. It's a sensible development model.

Yes. Very much so. You either take SOME risks on bleeding edge stuff, have your stuff dead-on instead of so-so, or you wait.

There's a reason I'm...unlikely...to use Unity for any game I'm fielding anytime soon. And yes, there was more to that remark than meets the eye.

;-D

As for Facepunch and Rust, I've largely said my peace, wound down a bit- I'm unlikely to natter on much more about it. Doesn't do well, as Liam's rightly pointing out here- it's enough to bitch once and move on. I find the "updates only" mentality to be also...problematic...symptomatic of a studio I wouldn't trust ever again. Oh, if they fix the engine or the drivers we'll fix our game, but we won't sell it to you anymore? Seriously?

X-D

It's time to shrug, mutter "go f*ck yourselves", turn our backs and move on. Seriously.

Quoting: GuestIn the end, with regard to Facepunch, this comes down to Ego (with regard to their successful game sales), attitude, and lazyness. Game developers with far less resources, using Unity3D, are able to manage a Linux release without drama or games.

Looking at Facepunch from a bigger picture, they have probably peaked in just about everything, sales, creativity, and fanfare. And the Linux gaming environment has changed since the early days of Rust. We all have more options and Linux support is almost expected when looking at Steam titles. So in the end, what Facepunch does is of little consequence in the big picture. Facepunch can fade into the background and nothing will have been lost.

Hm. Sounds almost like PUBG, doesn't it?


Last edited by svartalf on 27 July 2018 at 9:15 pm UTC
Pinguino Jul 27, 2018
How hard it is for devs to just say "We support this particular distribution with these particular GPU drivers. Feel free to run it in a different setup, but if anything goes wrong, you're on your own"? Wouldn't that solve the still understandably overwhelming issue of supporting GNU/Linux?

From the players' side, this can't be said enough times: be civil, everyone. Videogames are not something to lose your rag about. A few immature and impatient people costed all of us a native port of The Witcher 3. We may be just 0,5%, but we have the potential to be the best userbase when it comes to giving devs useful feedback.
x_wing Jul 27, 2018
Quoting: liamdaweI 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?

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.

As I already mention to Neon, I think that it could be understandable to stop supporting a platform if you find out that it's not profitable (that's the way economy works, unfortunately), but the Unity and Nvidia bug are mere excuses. Stating that he never did QA to our platform just shows us that their product managers are kinda mediocre, you cannot expect to have a product that works well without QA (in software development this is a KEY practice), not to mention that is very stupid to say that customers are "demanding, rude, abusive" when you release a product without QA.

As others already mention, many others devs were able to release on Linux their products with less resources (I recall Everspace release process as an example, not showing SteamOS icon until they could give the QA they expected in their product). Hate to say it, but you keep justifying this when there is no justification. All the statements of this guy just shows me that he has a very mediocre development process and he kinda cheated to Linux buyers.
Leopard Jul 27, 2018
Quoting: svartalf
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.

I was saying that if we take Liam's thinking out of small box words , conclusion is this. Games should only support big platforms , not more.

Which i disagree as a Linux user.

Liam's words are probably said because afraid of a new " The Witcher 2 " hate wave and aims to calming down.

I don't think he has bad intentions , but in the end that kind of thinking could easily lead to " actually , we didn't deserve any of this at first place " so that was the normal thing that supposed to happen.
Liam Dawe Jul 27, 2018
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: svartalf
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.

I was saying that if we take Liam's thinking out of small box words , conclusion is this. Games should only support big platforms , not more.

Which i disagree as a Linux user.

Liam's words are probably said because afraid of a new " The Witcher 2 " hate wave and aims to calming down.

I don't think he has bad intentions , but in the end that kind of thinking could easily lead to " actually , we didn't deserve any of this at first place " so that was the normal thing that supposed to happen.
I feel like you repeatedly and intentionally misrepresent what I say and I'm not sure why.

Let me make it perfectly fucking clear: At no point have I said games should only support big platforms, this site wouldn't exist and I wouldn't be here if so. I'm really doing my best to be polite with you, but you're making it very difficult at this point. Why the heck would I even be here, promoting Linux gaming nearly every single day if I thought so? It's as if you write a lot of your comments, without even using the slightest bit of your brain sometimes.

I want as many games as possible to support Linux.

It sucks that Unity and NVIDIA have caused issues (and to be clear again, those issues and confirmed by both) and it also sucks that Facepunch apparently didn't do QA and no I'm not amused by that either.
svartalf Jul 27, 2018
Quoting: wleoncioFrom the players' side, this can't be said enough times: be civil, everyone. Videogames are not something to lose your rag about. A few immature and impatient people costed all of us a native port of The Witcher 3. We may be just 0,5%, but we have the potential to be the best userbase when it comes to giving devs useful feedback.

I think you're going to find that this was an excuse, not reality in the case of Cdprojekt. They had a lot of difficulties with their "solution" that had legitimate complaints thrown at them over it. This was a differing example of someone thinking they could all but simply click a button and magically have a game without a lot of QA (If you think the woes there with the game "port" they did had much of any QA, I've some lovely land out West of where I'm currently day-job consulting (Ft. Lauderdale) that's "dry" and only has a few gators on it...PROMISE. X-D

They got it fixed, but not before a lot of goodwill on their was burned. They were dubious about it in the first place- and the ire was just the excuse they needed to not do another one. Half-hearted efforts using WINE-like layers unless you've got the thing dead on like Feral's got with some of those, well...it's not good for the studio or their customers. It just pooches the prospects on both sides...and blaming the upset, and legitimately so, customers about it; or the ones asking for a new version (Hey, you did that other one...) is mudslinging the OTHER way. I don't consider THAT acceptable either.
Leopard Jul 27, 2018
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: svartalf
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.

I was saying that if we take Liam's thinking out of small box words , conclusion is this. Games should only support big platforms , not more.

Which i disagree as a Linux user.

Liam's words are probably said because afraid of a new " The Witcher 2 " hate wave and aims to calming down.

I don't think he has bad intentions , but in the end that kind of thinking could easily lead to " actually , we didn't deserve any of this at first place " so that was the normal thing that supposed to happen.
I feel like you repeatedly and intentionally misrepresent what I say and I'm not sure why.

Let me make it perfectly fucking clear: At no point have I said games should only support big platforms, this site wouldn't exist and I wouldn't be here if so. I'm really doing my best to be polite with you, but you're making it very difficult at this point. Why the heck would I even be here, promoting Linux gaming nearly every single day if I thought so? It's as if you write a lot of your comments, without even using the slightest bit of your brain sometimes.

I want as many games as possible to support Linux.

It sucks that Unity and NVIDIA have caused issues (and to be clear again, those issues and confirmed by both) and it also sucks that Facepunch apparently didn't do QA and no I'm not amused by that either.

Why are you always insulting?

I was not saying anything bad either , why all that fury in your comments?

I'm not accusing you either , just saying that " We need to protect devs from outraging Linux users for the sake of Linux gaming , so let's be much more careful with our words " attitude is not always welcome. We have grown ( mentally ) a bit as you can see , so rather that blowing up to the devs , we are blowing out to each other here like you did just now.
Smoke39 Jul 27, 2018
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.
I'm all for giving leeway to devs who make a good faith effort, but I'm not for letting anyone walk all over us just for showing nominal support. Linux needs software to grow, but it won't do any good if it doesn't actually work. We can disagree on where to draw the line, or where on the spectrum this specific case lies, but I don't think I'm "unrealistic," and I don't think it's reasonable to characterize everyone who disagrees with you as such.

I also think it's unreasonable to conflate any and all criticism of the devs with "sending abuse."


Last edited by Smoke39 on 27 July 2018 at 9:51 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Jul 27, 2018
Quoting: Smoke39I also think it's unreasonable to conflate any and all criticism of the devs as "sending abuse."
Criticism where it's due is fine, I criticise issues in games all the time. I'm sure you really know the types of things I'm talking about.
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