After five years in early access, Satisfactory will finally launch into 1.0 later this year
No more updates or patches before the full release, Coffee Stain say
Can you believe it’s been almost half a decade since Satisfactory unleashed its gloriously pleasing factory-building hijinks into early access? And that, five years on, it’s still yet to hit 1.0? Well, you best believe it, as devs Coffee Stain Studios have confirmed that Satisfactory will finally reach the end of the early access conveyer belt sometime in 2024.
Satisfactory brought its first-person Factorio-a-like to the Epic Games Store in early 2019, having been in the works since 2016. In the time since, it’s made its way onto Steam and seen a number of major updates, adding new buildings, game modes and more conveyer belts to string together into very satisfying contraptions to ruthlessly exploit your alien world’s resources. Most recently, the game took the step up to Unreal Engine 5 in November to polish its performance and looks in its final pre-launch Update 8.
Having teased a 1.0 release for some time now, Coffee Stain say that a full launch will happen sometime this year. The game’s 1.0 will introduce a brand new story element to its survival-crafting gameplay, along with a number of new features yet to be detailed.
“Since we released Update 5 in 2021, we have been focused between delivering game-changing updates while simultaneously working on content towards 1.0,” said Coffee Stain’s Snutt Treptow, adding that there will be “next to no” patches from now until 1.0 to ensure the game becomes feature-complete. “With the final update 8 released, the whole team is now working together to finalise the game, and we can’t wait to share more with our players.”
Satisfactory has apparently shifted over five and a half million copies during its time in early access, so it’s perhaps no surprise that Coffee Stain promise they won’t be waving it off into the sunset when it hits 1.0 and development is planned to continue on future updates.
While Satisfactory’s 1.0 is yet to be dated, it will be preceded by a closed beta currently taking sign-ups over on the game’s website. You'll be able to sign up even if you don't already own Satisfactory, but access to the beta will be limited.