Rust 2 Leaks on Steam: Genuine Sequel or Elaborate PR Stunt?

A mysterious Steam page for "Rust 2" surfaced online yesterday, April 9. Naturally, the survival game community is already buzzing with questions. Is a highly anticipated sequel finally arriving? Or are the developers pulling an elaborate marketing stunt?

Right now, the evidence points heavily toward a stunt. Images of a Steam store page for Rust 2 recently began circulating on Reddit. Consequently, eager fans flocked online to find it. The actual page remains unlisted and hidden from standard Steam searches.

You can only access it via a direct link. Furthermore, the page lacks any practical details. It simply displays the title "Rust 2" alongside a controversial "free-to-play" tag. However, players should proceed with caution.

SteamDB officially flagged the listing as suspicious. They noted the page "may be malicious or impersonating another product". If the free-to-play tag actually proves genuine, players will undoubtedly raise concerns about potential microtransactions. The origins of this leak look highly orchestrated.

The Reddit account that posted the original image existed for mere minutes before uploading it. Moreover, Facepunch Games COO Alistair McFarlane quickly jumped into the resulting Reddit thread. Under his username "Alistair_Mc", he simply commented: You saw nothing. Later, McFarlane admitted he enjoys visiting the subreddit and causing confusion.

He specifically teased the community by saying: Now you're all questioning yourselves, is this real? Maybe? Because Summer Game Fest takes place this June, developers might just be building early hype for a major stage reveal. The original Rust launched in early access back in December 2013.

Since then, it has maintained massive popularity. The game currently hovers around 150,000 concurrent players, firmly securing its spot in Steam's top ten most-played games. Talk of a sequel previously surfaced in 2023. During the controversial Unity engine pricing changes, Facepunch founder Garry Newman explicitly stated Rust 2 would not use Unity due to cost increases.

Therefore, fans knew a sequel was on the studio's radar. Now, players must keep their eyes peeled as they wait for official confirmation.