Garry Newman responds to s&box criticism in lengthy YouTube comment: 'I don't like giving up on things, I am stubborn'

Facepunch founder Garry Newman (Garry's Mod, Rust, s&box) gave an emphatic, extensive mea culpa to the s&box community in a YouTube comment. Newman was responding to the latest video from Eridium, "S&box's Free To Play Weekend Isn't Enough," a highly critical state-of-the-game from the s&box-focused creator.

Facepunch's recently-released user generated content (UGC) platform has been billed as a Garry's Mod successor in the age of Roblox, but has struggled in its first five months on the market. Eridium's biggest critiques, as I understand them:

• The player character models, aka "the citizen," even with their spiffy new necks.
• Facepunch's insistence on not replacing the unpopular design, which Eridium views as "intransigence."
• He argues the game's poor first impression indicates it probably should have been delayed.
• Low quality games (particularly AI slop) flooding the platform and ruining discoverability for the good stuff (Newman previously downplayed the problem in an interview with us).
• A lack of outreach from Facepunch⁠—Eridium argued he already operates as an informal community manager, and that he could do the real job better than Facepunch is currently.

Here's Newman's own response in full, copied from a pinned comment under Eridium's video (you can also check out Eridium's own follow-up from earlier today):

2026 games: All the upcoming games
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together