Factorio developers announce expansion

The popular construction and management simulation game Factorio is getting an expansion. It will certainly take a year for the expansion to be completed. There will be no new major update for the base game, so the makers can focus on the expansion.

In a blog post, the Czech developers of Wube Software explain what the future plans are for Factorio. The game, which was announced through a crowdfunding campaign in 2013 and was in early access from 2016 to 2020, is getting a “significant” expansion. The expansion will complement the game with new content. According to the developers, all mods should continue to work, even with the expansion.

The developers also say that this means that they will stop developing Factorio itself. The 1.1 release will be the last. The game is still being maintained, so bug fixes and minor adjustments will still be made, but there will be no more content in the base game.

The makers also say that they do not plan to release Factorio 2. “Creating a new Factorio is the exact opposite of what we want,” the developers write. “The base game is now at a point where we’re happy with things like graphics, tutorials, engine and multiplayer. We’ve spent most of the last year finishing the gui. The last thing we want to do is , is throwing all that away just to change things.”

The expansion is preferred by the developers as they themselves as players are not a fan of small expansion packs. That’s why the studio focuses on one ‘big expansion’. It’s too early to put a date on the expansion or to say what the expansion will contain, the makers say. The studio is looking for additional 3D artists and developers to work on the expansion. Factorio was in development for 8 years and 10 months. More than 2.5 million copies of the game have been sold to date.

Update 18.00: Earlier we reported that the expansion had to be completed within a year. That is not true. Development will take at least a year, according to the developers.