When will it be on Steam?

[Pigeon039]

So when will they add the game on Steam? At this rate it seems after .12 but still wondering if anyone knows when they will add the game to Steam. I know you can add it as a non-steam game to steam but come on this game a lot better then a lot of the other greencra-- Greenlight games.

Also didn't they say that after they make the trailer that they would release it to Steam?

[DaveMcW]

http://www.factorio.com/faq

[starxplor]

Hopefully never... Remember, you never truely buy a copy of the game on steam, just a temporary license to use the game. If you dont like the way they change the terms of use, you are screwed out of any game you paid for access to play. Don't waste your money there, buy it from the developers and enjoy the ability to play the game for as long as you like.

[Nova]

@starxplor: Exactly my opinion. Then again, I understand that the reality doesn't follow this facts and Steam is still a mighty sales platform.

All in all, Factorio will not come to Steam for the next months. Wait for version 1.0.

[starxplor]

@starxplor: Exactly my opinion. Then again, I understand that the reality doesn't follow this facts and Steam is still a mighty sales platform.

All in all, Factorio will not come to Steam for the next months. Wait for version 1.0.

Yeah, I am not trying to say the situation is different than it is, I am trying to help change the situation with posts like above. Reality is that steam is popular. I want that changed, so I work toward that goal. Wishing and pretending it is not popular does not make it not popular, heh.

In the mean time, I will continue to enjoy and recommend an awesome game that is awesomely priced, available on Linux(which I use exclusively, at home), available without DRM, and playable offline so I can play whatever versions I have downloaded as long as my computer works. Thanks Devs!

[Pigeon039]

Steam is popular becuase Steam is popular; but honestly I just want to see them secuceed and I know when it goes live on Steam they'll get a lot more exposure. I was just wondering since we have multiplayer it might be a good time so that we get more people trying out multiplayer. Also I didn't see the FAQ on it .
And about Steam itself, yea it always better to buy from the game developer direct since I believe Steam gets a cut of sales on their site(all sites that act as middleman probably do since they need to keep the lights on), but with always online DRM I am so use to dealing with I just grown apathetic to it .

[GewaltSam]

Steam is popular becuase Steam is popular; but honestly I just want to see them secuceed and I know when it goes live on Steam they'll get a lot more exposure. I was just wondering since we have multiplayer it might be a good time so that we get more people trying out multiplayer. Also I didn't see the FAQ on it .
And about Steam itself, yea it always better to buy from the game developer direct since I believe Steam gets a cut of sales on their site(all sites that act as middleman probably do since they need to keep the lights on), but with always online DRM I am so use to dealing with I just grown apathetic to it .

For a Steam release, the game should not only have a working and stable multiplayer (which isn't the case), there should also be some kind of endgame. If it would be released in the current state, not only would the forum be full of flames about instability (poor kids; they know nothing about kovarex stable...), there would also be a lot of threads that sound like "i played 30 hours nonstop and now i got to rocket defense and what now? boring as hell"

Give it time. In the meantime, enjoy the game as is: steamless, and without a big and loud community (for now).

[Eurofighter1200]

I think its good the developer used time before release on steam there are to many bad games out there that in really early development and got release. But i think Factorio is at this state good enought to relesase on steam maybee a few upates on the multiplayer and content but then it should get to steam its important not go too early but also not to late to steam. Also its good promotion to update the steam version regulary so the game should not complete ready before go to steam.

[Mangledpork]

The thing with putting a game on steam is that when you do, you'll get a big boost in interest, sales, and so on, and the same thing happens when you release the full game. I believe the devs plan to do both things at the same time, which will maximise the effect of both, along with a bunch of other bonuses like lots of big youtubers covering it at once, no missing features to be complained at about, less faff for devs to deal with when they're still developing, etc.
All in all, it's better for them to wait till full release to go on steam.

[Boogieman14]

The thing with putting a game on steam is that when you do, you'll get a big boost in interest, sales, and so on, and the same thing happens when you release the full game.

Actually, I think when releasing the game too early, it will generate a lot of interest initially, but this might actually be detrimental in the long run. People will post reviews on the early access version, complaining about bugs and missing features. Once the full game comes out, these complaints will remain in place and count toward the totality of the reviews. The reviews itself will get a remark added that it's for an early access version, but the reviews summary at the top (the "mostly negative/mostly positive" thing) will just throw them all in one big pile. Many people may see "Mostly negative" there and not bother looking any further. So yeah, I agree that this approach is better.

[SHiRKiT]

Actually, I think when releasing the game too early, it will generate a lot of interest initially, but this might actually be detrimental in the long run. People will post reviews on the early access version, complaining about bugs and missing features. Once the full game comes out, these complaints will remain in place and count toward the totality of the reviews. The reviews itself will get a remark added that it's for an early access version, but the reviews summary at the top (the "mostly negative/mostly positive" thing) will just throw them all in one big pile. Many people may see "Mostly negative" there and not bother looking any further. So yeah, I agree that this approach is better.

People are learning that nowadays and seeing the drawbacks of releasing an Early Access game. I agree with the Factorio team, one should not advertise it's game on any distribution platforms before the game is near finished. Then you can release on Early Access for, let's say, up to 3 months, fix the last things, and make to the spotlights!

[sbroadbent]

Actually, I think when releasing the game too early, it will generate a lot of interest initially, but this might actually be detrimental in the long run. People will post reviews on the early access version, complaining about bugs and missing features. Once the full game comes out, these complaints will remain in place and count toward the totality of the reviews. The reviews itself will get a remark added that it's for an early access version, but the reviews summary at the top (the "mostly negative/mostly positive" thing) will just throw them all in one big pile. Many people may see "Mostly negative" there and not bother looking any further. So yeah, I agree that this approach is better.

There will always be people who see a game (whether Early Access or not) and dislike it, and spread their opinions about them. With that said, Factorio has a particular audience which may not appeal to everyone. All Factorio needs to get people's attention is a few Youtube videos like Nerd3's video. If I recall, this video was responsible for a large spike of new sales, which the Devs were not expecting at the time.

With that said, doing a google search for "Factorio Review", sifting out the unrelated results, Factorio has plenty of positive reviews (nothing below 8/10) already. The only thing keeping it off Steam at the moment is the Dev's perfectionism and wanting to be closer to when they plan to release in 2015.

Any new version of a game is going to have bugs and glitches that make gameplay annoying or problematic, that will require patches. Fortunately Factorio has a great dev team that is able to work on and solve these. I can name off a few games where the devs are either unable or incapable of fixing even game breaking bugs even several years after release, or have hobbled the game to requiring an internet connection to cut down on 'piracy' (which can be really easily be worked around... any game .exe can be modified to block such requirements), yet due to the number of players trying to connect to and play at launch, utterly crashes the infrastructure required to authenticate the game of paying customer's, but that's a rant for another time.

With that said, if Factorio were to go on to Steam in it's current state, the only versions that should be initially available to players on Steam are the releases that are considered stable, which at this time would be .10.12. Players on Steam would either have to wait for .11 to be considered stable before .11 becomes stable, or they can opt-in (with all relevant warnings about potentially bugs) to the experimental updates, much like we do currently. If people know before they buy in, of the state of the game and that there is still a lot of work to do to get to an officially released state, I think players in general will be a lot more forgiving about the potential flaws or downsides. If people come to Factorio thinking it's the complete and final version, they are obviously mistaken.

[Martc]

You can have stable and beta release on Steam. Gnomoria use that http://forums.gnomoria.com/index.php?topic=6976.0

But I agree that there is no need to rush to Steam release. Because developers has no comunity managers so they cant handle big community.

[Schorty]

I have bunch of friends, who would buy the game without hesitation and they know about the current state of the game (beeing an alpha version and stuff). The only thing, that stops them from doing so is, that they all have their games in steam and don't want to buy the game twice. If there only would be the possibility of getting a "free steam coupon" for factorio, when you have bought it earlier. I have no clue if that iss possible or not. I have a steam account, but only use it for games, that require steam. So, if one of you guys know more about this: Any info is appreciated

[cube]

I have bunch of friends, who would buy the game without hesitation and they know about the current state of the game (beeing an alpha version and stuff). The only thing, that stops them from doing so is, that they all have their games in steam and don't want to buy the game twice. If there only would be the possibility of getting a "free steam coupon" for factorio, when you have bought it earlier. I have no clue if that iss possible or not. I have a steam account, but only use it for games, that require steam. So, if one of you guys know more about this: Any info is appreciated ;)

If I buy the game now will I be able to get a Steam key?
Yes, if we get on Steam you will have a choice whether to "own" the game at our website or on Steam.

[Schorty]

Woohoo! I think I have to talk to some people

Thanks cube!

[slpwnd]

Woohoo! I think I have to talk to some people

Thanks cube!

Actually this is not completely up to us, but also up to Steam. Of course we will try to negotiate this with them. I have updated the FAQ to reflect this. However I am quite positive since there are other Indie games which AFAIK did the same (for instance CastleStory allowed their kickstarter backers to transfer the game to their Steam library once they got on Steam).

[Boogieman14]

It was the same for Gnomoria, in case you need more precedents

[Jythier]

You guys actually respond to the community.

You're already doing 10 times better than the Mode7Games guys. At one point they broke their game to the point of unplayability and left it that way for a month, having released this horrifiying version as a normal release and not a beta.

I'm having a lot more fun with this team who actually responds to problems, fixes them, or at least acknowledges them. And I like the way you release things as 'stable' vs. 'experimental' and we have time to actually play it before you switch to a release.

Anyway, good community management!

[Balinor]

It was the same for Gnomoria, in case you need more precedents

It wasn't exactly the same with Gnomoria though. I still have my drm free version of Gnomoria in addition to a steam key for it. So I have the steam version on my main machine and the drm free version on my laptop for if I want to play while travelling or away.