Early Access games about building stuff are a dime a dozen on Steam, but few of them have had the success – or the quality – of Factorio. The automation simulator has been wildly popular since it first hit Steam in 2016, but while the developers have offered occasional release date estimates for 1.0, those targets have all come and gone. Now, at last, we’ve got a firm plan for the end of Early Access.
Factorio 1.0 is scheduled to launch on September 25, 2020. As the developers say in a blog post, “we feel that the Factorio development is taking way too long.” They say the game’s polished enough to be considered finished as-is, but the transition to full release will give them a reason to start focusing on new content instead of constant tuning.
“We decided to just specify a 1.0 release date publicly, so we have to stick with it. We will just focus on the most important aspects as we approach the date, and we just do whatever we have time to do. Once the 1.0 happens, we can have some rest and after that, we can finally focus on the content and features again.”
As that quote implies, development on Factorio will continue after 1.0, but the devs haven’t yet decided exactly what they’ll be working on after launch.
In the meantime, you can dig into more of the best sandbox games if you’re looking for further ways to stretch your gaming creativity.