Facepunch reveals major s&box changes: free-to-play and curated discovery

Facepunch founder Garry Newman outlined a new direction for s&box: focus on improving the Sandbox Game, dropping the "Netflix for games" approach for a curated selection, moving the Play Fund to approval-based system and deepening Steam Workshop integration. s&box will go free-to-play towards the end of the year, and the Citizen character model will be removed.

• s&box will become free-to-play by the end of the year, existing buyers get exclusive Steam items
• Play Fund shifts to an approval-based system, prioritising curated high-quality games
• The Citizen character model will be removed after a year of unsuccessful work
• Facepunch will drop its custom backend for deeper Steam Workshop integration