'Rust' to leave early access in February

Promotional photo from the "Rust" Steam page Steam

After four years of early access, the survival game "Rust" is finally moving onto the next phase of development which is sometime in February. The game first released its early access version in 2013 and has been there ever since.

Facepunch Studios stated that leaving early access does not mean the game has reached its completion, but that they are ready to move on to the next phase of the game's development.

According to PC Gamer, creator Garry Newman said that it is not exactly a finished release of "Rust" but more of an alpha testing phase than anything else. The game will be available for purchase on Steam, and players will be able to help out with testing the bugs and the rest of the game's features.

Newman gave a more in-depth announcement on the game's official website and the announcement regarding the game leaving early access was uploaded on Jan. 22. The announcement read, "After over four long years, Rust is leaving Early Access. We started creating Rust in 2013, releasing it for testing originally as a browser game. After a few months, in December 2013 we released on Steam in Early Access. We plan to leave Early Access on the 8th February 2018."

Newman then went on to state that they have not quite figured out where they want to go or what they want to do with "Rust" as of yet. However, they do want to test the game with an active player base. They want to stabilize updates, test everything to make sure it works, and use the data gathered from alpha testing to continue to improve the game. Newman also mentioned that once "Rust" entered alpha testing, the price of the game would rise from $19.99 to $34.99. Gamers who want to join the alpha testing can choose to purchase the early access for $19.99 now and wait for the update on Feb. 8. The announcement ended with a thank you from Newman to everyone who helped support the development of "Rust."

"Rust" is a survival game that focuses on crafting, gathering, and building. Players must not only fend off enemies but must find ways to keep their characters alive in harsh environments.

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