Garry Newman, head of Facepunch Studios and creator of the original Garry's Mod, has announced that Rust is finally leaving early access after more than four years in development. Oddly enough though, not much is changing and he even seems to suggest that the game isn't actually done.
"We're not planning any big reveals, launch parties, around the world tours or cash prize giveaways for this event," Newman said in the official announcement. "We're not going to move staff onto other projects. It's very much going to happen without much fuss. It's business as usual."
While Rust is leaving early access though, Newman doesn't see it as a finished game like most that drop that particular moniker, claiming instead that the game is more like heading into the alpha phase of its life cycle.
"Please try not to compare the game to some other finished game or some idealised version you have in your head," he said. "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."
"Think of it more like we're leaving Prototyping and entering Alpha. Obviously, we don't consider that we're actually entering Alpha, this is an example," he clarified. "We're entering a more stable version of what we have been doing."
The official date that Rust will leave early access is on February 8 2018 and although it doesn't necessarily mark the end of Rust's journey, it does mark a key point in locking down the game's features. The core idea of what Rust is has now been solidified and updates will come a little slower, but will be more thought out. Newman and co. are also splitting it into two distinct branches. The first, the main branch, will be the core game with monthly tested updates with some irregular hotfixes. The second branch, Staging, will be at the bleeding edge and will see much more regular updates, but with far less testing and more bugs to be expected.
While that all sounds well and good, if you want to be part of it you may want to buy the game now, as it's getting a price hike to $35 at the day of release.
