Rust comes out of Early Access in February

After four years, Rust is leaving Steam Early Access.

The multiplayer survival adventure game is coming to Steam’s full marketplace for Windows PC on Feb. 8, 2018. It had been available in Early Access since December 2013.

That said, developer Facepunch Studios isn’t vouching for the game as complete. “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,” Facepunch said in a statement.

So why drop the “Early Access” pretense? “Part of leaving Early Access is making the development more stable,” Facepunch reasoned. “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.”

That means two versions of Rust will be out in February — a “main branch” and a “staging branch”. The “staging branch” will feature daily updates to the game; the “main branch” will be updated less regularly.

With the full launch, Rust’s price will also increase, to $34.99 from $19.99.