The Imminent 1.0 Launch Of Satisfactory Is Bittersweet For A Long ...
Getting invested in an Early Access game doesn’t always turn out well. When you buy into a game in its earliest stages, there often isn’t much to do, and there’s no guarantee that the game will ever form into a shape even vaguely reminiscent of what the developers have promised.
I’ve gotten burned more times than I can count by Early Access games that ended up in development hell or were abandoned not long after Early Access began. Developers have said that they’re actually disincentives to continue working on games after the initial interest dies off, which is probably why studios like Palworld’s Pocketpair have multiple Early Access games ‘in development’, but only the newest one seems to be getting much attention.
But for every ten Early Access sob stories, there’s one success that makes the whole journey worth it. Being there from the very beginning and watching a game evolve with every update until it finally launches 1.0 is incredibly satisfying, and I’ve been lucky enough to get in on the ground floor of some of Steam’s biggest Early Access hits. Subnautica, Slay the Spire, The Forest, and Raft all spent years in Early Access, offering many opportunities to pop in and check their progress as they slowly grew into phenomenal games.
Satisfactory: The Best Locations In The Open-World Game, Ranked
Satisfactory's massive open-world contains plenty of gorgeous and challenging areas. Which are the best locations on the map?Of all the games I’ve tracked through Early Access, Satisfactory is the one I’ve spent the most time with and waited the longest to see it reach the finish line. With the 1.0 launch on the horizon later this year, it’s bittersweet to know that the journey is coming to an end.
I started playing Satisfactory all the way back in 2019 when it first hit the Epic Game Store, and I was immediately enamored by it. A first-person, 3D version of Factorio might not sound that appealing on paper, but the process of mining, building, and automating across a vast alien world is an experience unlike any other. The progression path that begins with hand drilling raw iron and ends with scheduling a network of trains that ship materials back and forth to factories spread out across the entire planet is intoxicating, and the path to get there is filled with countless dopamine hits along the way.
It scratches the same itch that survival games do, but it also tickles the part of my brain that loves RPGs and making numbers go up. It’s hard to explain what is so alluring about managing power grids and routing conveyor belts for optimum output. I crave efficiency, and I love collaborating with my friends and using our different strengths to accomplish small tasks and big milestones.
Satisfactory has changed so much in the last six years, and I’ve loved jumping back in with each new major update to see all the new equipment and improvements. The most recent update at the end of last year brought the entire game into Unreal 5 - a massive undertaking for Coffee Stain Studios - and introduced some incredibly useful tools like the Power Tower for long distance power networking and priority power switches to help ensure parts of your grid stay up when the system gets overloaded. These aren’t as game changing as some of the additions made in past updates - like Ziplines, weapons, and massive overhauls to each biome on the map - but that’s just a signal that development is starting to wind down. We may be coming to the end of big, exciting new features in Satisfactory, and while I’m happy to see the game finally launch, I’m also sad that the journey is almost over.
This year’s 1.0 update will finally bring a full story campaign to the game, which is exciting for anyone that’s been the game for years with no other motivations than ‘increase production infinitely’ - not that that’s a bad motivation. It’s worked pretty well for me all these years, and even if the updates slow down or stop, I don’t see myself moving on from Satisfactory anytime soon.
Next: Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting Satisfactory