On 7th Dec 2023 a Rust update post celebrated the 10th anniversary of the game, announcing the reintroduction of some Rust Legacy items or skins which had been part of the abandoned early version of the game, and were now recreated. The majority of skins were locked behind microtransactions though, resulting in criticism, as players commented:

So now people have to pay for content that was removed from the game?

It shouldn't be an extra cost when it was literally a part of the game I bought

The Legacy items reintroduced to the game included:

• Legacy Bow
  
• Legacy Furnace
  
• Legacy Kevlar Facemask
  
• Legacy Kevlar Vest
  
• Legacy Wood Shelter
  
• Legacy Wood
  
• M4 Shotgun

Four of the items were skins that are locked behind microtransactions. They might offer a poor sense of value for money, as the design simply consists of wood, or just some black clothing. As players have noted, the designs had already been included in the game before (perhaps in lower resolution) so their total cost of £17.16 seems expensive (if it was even right to place a pricetag on them).

There's discussion about a potential advantage to players that purchased the Legacy Bow, as they'd be able to then craft a bow with a skin that is explained to have a pay-to-win advantage: "If you use a center of monitor cross hair like most people do nowadays, the regular bow shoots low and left of center point. The legacy bow shoots true to center. It makes fighting a whole lot easier with the legacy bow".

The Legacy Furnace skin did not have a pricetag, but for a player to unlock it they must "play for 3+ hours during the month of December" although it was reportedly refusing to unlock after 3 hours. This fear-of-missing-out aspect may also be a controversial part of the "celebration" which extends to three of the monetized skins being "limited" - making the players feel like they have to get them before they're unobtainable.

The M4 Shotgun and Legacy Shelter items are freely in the game, although complaints have been made about the Legacy Shelter being spammed across the map - the original had no building area privilege, but this new version of the shelter can be used to deny players from building around it, and screenshots show them covering "high value" areas.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3315840932

In defense of microtransactions, some players suggest that they help fund updates to the game, while others might challenge that the game (currently at £34.99) is still expensive enough to fund updates, and the anniversary has sparked some retrospection on whether the updates could have taken the game in a better direction over the years. Rust had arguably gone from a survival concept to a competitive team PvP experience. One player stated that:

The game has moved away from what I found fun

Players generally criticized the lack of optimisation, and expressed concern that the anti-cheat system didn't have much impact on the cheater issue. There was also a feeling that the game's price should have been discounted during the 10th anniversary, which was coupled with a sense of disappointment at there having been more paid DLC.

I think it's fair to say that Facepunch Studios is one of the more respected developers and publishers in the gaming scene; players happily supported Rust for decade, so part of the disappointment may be due to customers feeling like they had to pay Facepunch for the celebration, rather than being repaid for their loyalty.

A patch in Feb 2024 limited the active number of legacy shelters to one per player.

Polls & stats
- 10th anniversary stats
Rust News
- Rust News articles

Rust community version of the article:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/252490/discussions/0/4029096129893699318/

Rust News version of the article:
https://rustne.ws/2023/12/08/rusts-controversial-10th-anniversary-update/

Main index