Rust developer Facepunch Studios will cancel its plans for next week's GDC event in San Francisco as various team members have faced "an IRL threat" that must be taken seriously. The studio confirmed the news via a statement on Twitter, which can be viewed below.
The developer asked all fans to send their creations, portfolios, or suggestions to the studio's GDC email. Facepunch didn't explain exactly what the threat was and who is (or are) behind that, but it is indeed horrifying to see a game development studio behind a hugely popular title like Rust missing a public expo to avoid risking the lives of its employees.
Of course, this isn't the first time death threats have been sent to video game developers, and sadly likely won't be the last. "It's important to remember the developers are indeed humans," reads Facepunch's statement on Twitter. "When threats arise we make their safety #1."
Back in 2020 and less than a few months after the release of The Last of Us: Part II, some toxic gamers who were apparently unhappy with the game's story began sending hateful messages and death threats to a number of Naughty Dog developers, which were condemned via an official statement by the studio.
In the same year, CD Projekt RED faced an even stranger case of death threats when some team members received threatening messages after Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed yet another time. This kind of toxic behavior doesn't benefit anyone, other than making game developers skeptical about their projects and putting more pressure on them which can hugely affect their personal lives and families.
The most recent example of death threats is related to Blue Box Games, the European indie studio behind Abandoned. Although the game is a controversial project and has somehow frustrated fans with its mysterious showcases, that still doesn't justify sending death threats to game developers.
As a survival MMO experience available on PC and consoles, Rust is a pretty popular experience and usually stands among the top 10 games with the most concurrent players on Steam.