To combat cheaters, Rust will soon launch premium servers, but players are even happy

Facepunch Studios CEO and Executive Producer Alistair McFarlane has revealed a new feature for online survival sim Rust: premium servers. But not quite the kind you might think.

Image Source: Facepunch Studios

As it became known, premium servers will appear in Rust from March 6. To access them, the user will not have to pay an entry fee: it is only necessary to have a Rust game inventory in Steam worth $15.

The experimental feature is aimed at protecting honest players from cheaters. According to Facepunch, 98% of dishonest users have accounts worth less than $20.

«”This is an experimental way to protect against cheaters. It won’t stop everyone who uses cheats, but based on our data and behavior patterns, [it should be] over 98% effective,” McFarlane said.

Users were delighted with the innovation and the developers’ play on the concept of premium servers. “It’s about 1000 times better than verification by phone number,” says LabourShinyBlast from the Reddit forum.

According to fans, Facepunch Studios should go even further and set the barrier to entry at $50, $100, or even $1000. Otherwise, cheaters can buy items to enter premium servers.

The release version of Rust debuted in February 2018 on PC (Steam), and in May 2021, the simulator appeared on PS4 and Xbox One. Total sales of the game by the end of 2021 exceeded 12.5 million copies.