Critically-acclaimed base-building hit Factorio is an odd duck. Since its 2016 Steam release, the game has never gone on sale. And now, the developer behind Factorio is changing the price of its popular game, but it ain’t getting a discount. Instead, the price is jumping up $5 next week. The devs blamed inflation for the sudden price increase, and interestingly enough, the general reaction from the community has been mostly positive.
Since its release seven years ago on Steam, Factorio has been a popular game, even though it never, ever goes on sale. On the game’s Steam page, it straight up has a disclaimer letting folks know that its devs have no plans to “take part in a sale or to reduce the price for the foreseeable future.” That’ll still be the case after it goes from $30 to $35 on January 26.
“This is an adjustment to account for the level of inflation since the Steam release in 2016,” the official Factorio Twitter account tweeted. You might expect a flood of angry responses from players, but it appears that the devs have done a good job of being transparent with their community, for example by giving them plenty of heads up about the upcoming price change. Factorio has also avoided microtransactions and other exploitative or expensive DLC. The end result is that not only are people fine with this price increase, but many are suggesting the studio offer more ways for players to help financially support the game.
“Fine, but now give me an add-on to spend more money [on] this game!” tweeted one player. “Honestly, I would love to see other ways to support the game as I already own it,” tweeted another fan.
You might be wondering why a studio would never let its game be a part of any Steam sale for nearly a decade. According to the makers of Factorio in a 2016 forum post, it’s about respecting players who bought the game and not rewarding people who “hold off” on buying it at a lower price.
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“If you think [Factorio is] priced too high, then it is your choice to not purchase, and we hope that with enough time, and extra development, we will be able to convince you of its value.
Factorio isn’t the only game on Steam making changes to make more money as the economy continues to spiral down the drain. Military shooter Squad is going back on a promise its devs made about never doing paid DLC or cosmetics. In an upcoming update, Squad will get its first paid DLC in the form of new in-game emotes.
Here’s what the team behind the online milsim shooter had to say on Steam about the new, upcoming paid cosmetics:
As we look into the future we see a long and healthy life for Squad. It has a large and dedicated playerbase. We have plans for more updates and to support the game beyond 2023. While many of these planned updates will be free, we also realize that we need a way to continue to fund the development of Squad. Paid content like emotes is one such way to help fund that development and continue our work on improving the game.
Compared to how people reacted to Factorio’s price increase, the response from Squad’s player community has been far less positive, with some feeling betrayed after being promised that this wouldn’t happen. However, some were more open to the new option, understanding that developing a game isn’t easy or free and that at some point, studios need a way to bring in more income to help keep the lights on. That’s especially true as inflation continues to be a problem around the globe.
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