With the rapid increase in its playerbase, Rust has begun innovating more with its gameplay and implementing new elements. It has, at this point, proved itself a survivor in the survival genre. However, it is not immune to accidents and out-of-game problems, just like other always-online games. One of these problems has reared its head in the form of a fire that destroyed a server building containing Rust data servers.

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The server fire was discovered early in the morning and, according to Rust’s official Twitter, “destroyed SBG-2 building.” The destruction took 25 of the game’s EU servers offline, making playing the game significantly more difficult for any who regularly used those servers. On top of that, any progress that players had made on those servers has been wiped out and irrevocably lost. Of course, Rust already implements forced wipes of its servers once per month, but this is a far more permanent and damaging situation, as the servers as well as the data are lost.

As of this article, there is no word of what exactly caused the server fire, but it was clearly devastating. Facepunch Studios, the company behind Rust, is looking into replacing the servers, but Rust players in the EU will find it trickier to play for now. This comes at a poor time, since Rust’s popularity has been steadily increasing. Back in January, Rust topped Steam’s top-seller list for three weeks straight. Replacing the servers will no doubt be expensive, especially since a new building must be found to store them properly at this point.

Many players are angry over the progress lost thanks to the fire. With server wipes a monthly occurrence, progress towards creations is made swiftly, and dedicated players strive hard for every inch of their creations. While Rust added a mode for casual players recently, the hardcore players are not happy about the loss of data.

Other players are more sympathetic, recognizing the unexpected setback and loss of assets as simply that: an unfortunate accident. Whether there will be any recompense for players who have lost data is currently unknown. Whether or not this will affect the release of Rust’s next update is also unknown.

Rust is available to play on PC now, and is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2021.

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