I need to vent because the state of this game is just depressing. I launched s&box today hoping to see some cool new stuff, but it's a total desert.
I checked the stats on SteamDB and it’s actually insane:
- 618 players right now
- 795 peak today
- 12,935 all-time peak just 2 months ago.
Losing over 90% of the player base in 8 weeks is crazy. Every time I open the game, it's the exact same low-effort, mobile-style trash games. It feels like a race where "devs" just spam garbage asset-flips hoping to make quick money, while honest and passionate modders get completely screwed.
It’s a huge vicious cycle: No players -> creators abandon the game -> no good modes -> nobody wants to buy a 20€ dead game -> no players.
Who in their right mind is going to pay 20€ to join empty servers? Nobody. Now we're just stuck with a 20€ icon in our Steam library that will probably never recover. We didn't even necessarily need a GMod 2, we just wanted a Roblox 2.0 with way bigger and better possibilities. Instead, we got a ghost town.
To be completely honest, it’s both the devs' and our fault. Facepunch completely messed up the launch and how they positioned the game. Making it paid was a huge mistake. But we, the community, are also to blame. Even with all the amazing tools we were given, most people just got greedy and ruined the game with low-effort AI slop and endless clickers. There actually are some hidden gems in there, but they are either completely outdated because passionate creators lost motivation (which I totally understand), or completely unplayable because there's zero player base and the game doesn't promote them. It's just a damn shame.
Honestly, Facepunch needs to make the game Free-to-Play right now to bring people back, or Steam should just let us all get a refund.