Garry’s Mod Creator Expresses Regret Over Reaction to New Project: “I Feel I’ve Disappointed Everyone”

Garry Newman, the mastermind behind the wildly popular Garry’s Mod, has been candid about his studio’s latest venture. The awkwardly named s&box was meant to serve as a spiritual successor to Garry’s Mod, the 2008 mod for Valve’s Source engine that sold over 25 million copies. Launched in April this year and built on Source 2, Facepunch’s s&box quickly became overwhelmed by a flood of low-quality AI-generated content and received poor reviews.

In an effort to combat the influx of user-generated AI nonsense, Newman—who isn’t known for backing down from a debate—expressed his reluctance to ban AI completely, citing its value as a learning and productivity tool. However, these measures failed to improve the initial reception of the open-source project, which is currently stuck with a mere 47 percent positive rating on Steam.

Player engagement has been dismal. While the two-decade-old Garry’s Mod enjoys nearly 30,000 concurrent players daily, s&box struggles to reach 500, despite estimates suggesting it has sold between 500,000 and a million copies. Recently, in a bid to attract more players, Facepunch offered a free weekend for s&box, which prompted Newman to express his frustration in a YouTube video discussing the lackluster promotion.

“The launch was terrible,” Newman admitted. “The free weekend was terrible.” He attributed the project’s struggles to “burnt bridges,” adding, “We can’t escape that; we messed up. We weren’t prepared, and we messed up. We know it, you know it, we messed up.”

Following these remarks, Newman published a blog post on the game’s official site that criticized nearly every aspect of s&box.

“I’ve been reevaluating what s&box should be over the past few weeks,” Newman stated. “The platform isn’t well-received, and it lacks player retention. I’m embarrassed by our reviews; I feel ashamed. I’m taking all the negative feedback seriously and considering what we should and shouldn’t do. It’s no secret that things haven’t been going well.”

He acknowledged that the fundamental error was marketing s&box as an “engine and development experience,” overlooking the fact that players are primarily interested in gameplay. Newman emphasized:

…We need to significantly improve the game, shifting our focus to player experiences rather than developer tools. This includes enhancing the Sandbox Game, matching and exceeding the capabilities of Garry’s Mod, showcasing what the engine can do, adding more NPCs and vehicles, providing a top-notch multiplayer experience, and supporting addons and customization. This is a manageable task—but I’ve let down those who expected more. I accept that, and I’m sorry—we will do better.

Newman also noted that the overwhelming amount of AI-generated content has made it difficult for players to discover engaging games within the sandbox. He remarked, “My vision of a Netflix for games isn’t working. It’s not practical. It’s not how people find games.” The new direction aims to simplify the experience by allowing curation to highlight the best ideas. As Newman put it, “Where good taste and great opinions are valued above all else. This is a fundamentally human aspect that AI can never replace.”

The blog further stated that the development of Facepunch’s own backend has “largely been a waste of time and resources,” and he plans to transition everything to the existing Steam Workshop, which already provides the necessary services.

This is quite the remarkable admission, and it will be intriguing to see if there’s any way to salvage s&box’s future after such a rocky launch and surprisingly low player count.