"I’m embarrassed by our reviews, I am ashamed"

Image credit: Facepunch Studios

Earlier this year, Garry's Mod and Rust developers Facepunch Studios released S&box , a mix of open source game development platform/spiritual successor to their Valve prop-filled physics sandbox. It's not fared well, only earning mixed reviews and being stuffed with low quality AI generated games early doors. Now, Facepunch founder Garry Newman has announced plans for a major overhaul that'll see S&box go free to play.

"I’ve been rethinking what s&box should look like over the past couple of weeks," Newman wrote in an announcement post put up on Steam and the game's website . "The platform is not well liked, it doesn’t have good retention. I’m embarrassed by our reviews, I am ashamed. Listening to all the negative feedback, absorbing, taking it seriously and deciding what we should and shouldn’t be doing. It’s not a big secret that it hasn’t been going well.

"Our focus has been on the engine and the development experience.…