All zombies have been removed from Rust

The developer of open-world survival success Rust has excised all zombies from the game.

Facepunch Studios made the change last night in a new update which saw all undead humans replaced by undead wildlife.

"Yep. We did it. We decided we couldn't hold off any longer," developer Maurino Berry wrote (thanks, Polygon). "The longer we keep zombies in - the more complaints we'd get about removing them. We are forcing ourselves to deal with it. We are no longer a zombie survival game!"

The game's replacement enemies include red bears and wolves, although these are "just plugging a gap for now," Berry added. "All will be revvvealed." Vampires?

Facepunch has talked before of removing zombies from Rust due to being "sick" of games which feature them as enemies. They're also only a minor threat in the game compared to other human players.

A mix of DayZ and Minecraft, Rust has already gathered a firm following despite only being in alpha.

"There's more than enough here to suggest great things in Rust's future as it evolves its crafting, its combat, and clears out the zombies to further find its own niche," Richard Cobbett wrote in Eurogamer's Rust alpha review. "It has the tools to become something very special, and hopefully will provide players with enough to do the same."