The popular factory building and management game Factorio is finally launching out of Steam Early Access next year, the developer announced today on its blog. Factorio will reach version 1.0 and release officially on September 25, 2020.
"We feel that the Factorio development is taking way too long." said the developer in the blog post. "The approach "It is done when it is done" was serving us well to deliver a high quality product, but if we continued this way, we would be doing it basically forever."
The developer explained that it wants to explore adding new features and content "instead of just polishing parts that are already present in the game." It seems this 1.0 release - which is still quite some time away - will be the start of a new chapter for the title, though even the developer doesn"t know what sort of a direction it will take, saying "When we have a better idea of what we will be working on after the 1.0 release, we will let you know."
The game originally entered the Early Access program in 2016 and has been receiving steady updates since then, even managing to become one of the most popular construction games available on Steam. It is playable in both single-player and cooperative multiplayer formats, and also boasts a strong modding community.
In the game, players start off on an alien planet with the ability to make simple machines that mine and smelt resources, but with research, these expand to include entire production lines, oil refining systems, robot logistics networks, automated train stations, and much more. Pollution that"s caused from these factories, however, attract the hostile alien life, so players can also make advance defense systems or try to go greener with solar panels and such.
As previously said, Factorio is slated to launch version 1.0 on September 25, 2020 on Steam, releasing without any changes to its famously sturdy $30 price tag.