Factorio News

Factorio is getting "proper controller support" to help Steam Deck players

The developer of Factorio has begun experimenting with "proper controller support" for one of the best management games on PC, with the goal of implementing it "later this year" - a decision it came to while trying Factorio on Valve's Steam Deck handheld.

With the Steam Deck now officially out, the first owners of Valve's new portable gaming PC are finding out its quirks - as Factorio developer Wube Software discovered regarding their own strategy game and reported in a new blog post. While Factorio was initially used to advertise the Steam Deck, and it apparently "technically works great", the team ran into trouble with the controls.

"Factorio was designed always with only mouse and keyboard in mind," explains developer Twinsen. They show a video of them getting it working, but it apparently requires players to make their "own controller configuration using Steam Input, trying to map the Steam Deck's buttons to keyboard and mouse interactions" - which apparently also needs "a lot of patience and a good understanding of Steam Input's action sets, layers, radial menus, et cetera."

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Factorio has passed 3.1 million sales in 6 years

It's been six years since the original version of Factorio launched on Steam Early Access, and now the developer of one of the best management games on PC has revealed that in that time Factorio sales have passed 3 million customers - despite the team claiming about it "never really taking part in sales or bundles".

The PC strategy game came out in Early Access on February 25, 2016, after a successful Indiegogo campaign in 2013 and sales of very early versions via developer Wube Software's website. Factorio's official release date on Steam out of early access is August 14, 2020 - which was actually moved up so as not to compete with Cyberpunk 2077, although that would end up getting delayed to December.

So, it was Factorio's sixth anniversary yesterday, and Wube Software posted a new blog post with an update on the game - as well as to confirm that, alongside this significant date, Factorio has "just recently too we passed 3 million total sales - and we're even past 3.1 million at this point - so it is quite a milestone".

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Friday Facts #368 - Steam deck, Ghost bugs, Docs improvements

Hello,

Today is actually the 6 year anniversary of Factorio launching on Steam, and just recently too we passed 3 million total sales (and we're even past 3.1 million at this point), so it is quite a milestone. It is great for us that the game is still selling consistently year on year, even though we never take part in sales or bundles.

Read the full blog post on our website.

Factorio expansion will be as big "as the whole vanilla game"

It's been over a year since the reveal of a new Factorio expansion, which developer Wube Software opted to do instead of smaller DLC packs, and fans haven't heard anything since. Now, the team has finally provided an update, confirming that it will be a full-priced release as big as the original game - although it might still be a ways off a release.

The Factorio expansion was announced in February 2021, along with the news that the Steam release would mark the end of updates for the game - so the expansion would be Wube Software's focus from that point on. It also said that the expansion wouldn't "take less than a year to develop".

That statement was correct, as a year later the Factorio DLC still isn't out - but Wube has released a blog post to update fans on its status. The developer plans to make the expansion $30, the same as the main game, and "put in enough content to make it well worth the price". "The general goal," the blog post states, "is to make the expansion feel like as big an addition as the whole vanilla game".

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Friday Facts #367 - Expansion news

Hello, long time no talk, we've got some catching up to do...

Almost 1 year ago we said "we don't think that [the expansion] will take less than a year to develop". Well it has been less than a year and it is not finished, so we kept our word on that :).

But while it might not be finished, there is a still a lot we have done so far.

Read the full blog post on our website.