'Rust' game news: Survival online game to leave early access after four years

Promotional image for "Rust"Facepunch

It seems the developers of the survival game "Rust" might be looking to finish the game soon before it gets tarnished, as it will now be leaving its early access status in Steam come February.

This does not mean that it is now a full release title since Facepunch Studios has claimed that it does not want to rush the game despite leaving early access. As such, testing and development for "Rust" will still continue, and the game will still have an "incomplete" status since the developers merely want to move on from the early access phase of the game.

"Don't think of this as us claiming that the game is done. Think of this as us saying that if Early Access didn't exist we'd have released the game on Steam by now. Part of leaving Early Access is making the development more stable. That means that not rushing in features and fixes that end up breaking something else. For that reason, we're going to be transitioning to monthly updates," according to Facepunch.

Hence, on Feb. 8, "Rust" will have a "main branch" and a "staging branch," where the former will be the playable game while the letter will be made solely for updates, basically a test server. This means that the staging branch will be receiving patches and updates a lot more often than the main branch in order not to disturb the play sessions.

Additionally, the developers have urged players to try not to compare "Rust" to any other game which has recently come out of its early access phase and is complete. They feel it is fairer to compare the game now to how it was before the early access phase began, as a testament to how far the developers have come.

It can be recalled that "Rust" has been in early access for four years now since Dec. 2013. The aim in "Rust" is to simply survive the harsh wilderness in-game, and players can use any means available from betrayal, theft, violence, wits, or even cooperation in order to achieve this goal. It is not yet clear when "Rust" will be released as full, but rest assured, the game is now heading for a more progressive direction.