Factorio Expansion Will Be As Big As The Base Game, According To Dev
Wube Software has announced that they plan for the upcoming Factorio expansion pack to equal the entire base game in terms of size. Factorio is a factory simulator game that spent four years in early access before being released fully in August 2020. Even then, the game suffered a somewhat fraught release, being plagued by over 100 bugs and other problems that had to be fixed in patch 1.1, which was released about six months later.
Fans of Factorio have had quite the wait since the developers first announced their plans for the Factorio expansion pack. The original statement made clear that the plans for this expansion would not take less than a year to complete and now, almost exactly a year later, Wube has released a blog post with an update on the upcoming expansion release. According to the developers, this expansion pack will be accompanied by a patch that will fix a variety of bugs that have gone unaddressed since patch 1.1. Between the DLC and the patch, Wube plans to fully wrap up all of their remaining development goals for Factorio.
An article published by PCGamesN yesterday discussed the contents of Wube’s blog update. The DLC is set to cost $30, the same price as the basic Factorio experience itself, but the developers plan to include enough content to make the price worthwhile. The release is still some time from being complete, but according to the post large sections of the game are playable and they will soon be able to playtest the entire expansion top to bottom. Once that is done the DLC will be cleaned and improved before being released into a closed beta. The beta will likely be a small ordeal, as the blog post states that the number of players they plan to invite to it will be limited.
The expansion will function like a mod, so players will be able to turn it off and play without after purchasing it if they are so inclined. Additionally, the game will remain compatible with the base Factorio, enabling players to turn off the update and play with others who do not have the expansion. Wube does not plan on another bug-ridden release, hoping to launch the expansion pack in a more or less fully stable state. This presents its share of difficulties, but Wube hopes that between automated testing and the closed beta it will be able to pull it off.
Loyal Factorio fans are a patient bunch, and they are going to have to continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Although this update fills in many details of what the plan is for the expansion pack, it does not clarify a final or even a tentative release date for the expansion. Nor has it been given a name yet, at least not that has been revealed to the public. As it stands there is a lot for Factorio lovers to look forward to, but there is also still a while to wait before the DLC goes live.