Rust developers lose $4M through refunds

Rust developers lose $4 million through Steam refunds but don’t mind.

Steam lets gamers to request a refund on any game they’ve purchased. This allows gamer the freedom to try any game they think they might like, without the pressure of having to fully commit to it if it isn’t for them. But for developers this system can be a huge source of lost income, and even negative feedback.

Rust developer, Garry Newman, recently posted the total Steam refunds for his game. The number of refunded units was 329,970, equating to $4,382,032. However, Newman isn’t bothered by these numbers or the reasons given for the Steam refunds.

Garry Newman’s previous title, Garry’s Mod, had the same most common reason for refund cited, ‘not fun’, which he says is understandable given the harshness of the game. In Rust players are thrown into a world with nothing to their name but a rock. They must craft enough to help them survive, and if they’re killed while logged off they must start again. Players have banded together to form tribes and create massive bases which they war against each other from, but everything is reset each week with the servers meaning everyone must start from scratch again.

Rust has sold more than 5.5 million units, and Newman says that the units refunded are seen, by him at least, as gamers using the system as a way to demo the game to see if it’s for them or not. Not only does this remove pressure from Newman to deal with feedback from owners who didn’t know what they were buying, but it also means there’s no need for a demo version of the game.

Newman said that the Steam refund system, which has cost him around $4 million in Rust sales, is helping developers like him gain more sales in the long run. It makes sense because many gamers don’t have the money to shell out on a game they’re not sure about, but the refund system seems to be negating any reservations PC and Mac gamers have about this for now.

Related Topics: Rust, Steam

Comments are closed.

---