Factorio Forums

Hey everyone.

I tried Factorio and I really like it. Therefore I've decided to buy it.

I have seen that the game can be bought both on the official website and on Steam. I am aware that by buying on factorio.com I will get a Steam key. Nonetheless I am indecisive about where to buy Factorio so I'd like you guys to tell me what advantages are there when buying from each site. Is there a difference for the developers? By buying on Steam can I use the game without Steam? Do I get any extras by buying from either side? Can I get a discount if I buy more than one copy?

Thank you. And for the devs: keep up the good work!

Benefits of Factorio.com:
- Access to historical versions
- You don't need Steam to run it
- More of the purchase price goes to the developers
- You get a free Steam key anyway!

Benefits of Steam:
- If you don't live in Western Europe, you probably get a regional discount. It's $22 US on Factorio.com, vs $20 US on Steam.

There are no sales or bundles planned anytime soon.

I guess you can maybe get a bulk discount if you buy >100 copies at the same time.

Also Steam syncs saves between computers afaik. Very handy for some.

I believe eventually they will allow Steam-buyers to download the game from the website too, but not yet.

And you will always be able to buy from here? (while receiving a steam key)
And I googled a bit, looks like steam takes a minimum 30% cut.

Tankh wrote:I believe eventually they will allow Steam-buyers to download the game from the website too, but not yet.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=20646&p=129939#p129939

Thank you all, guys. I already bought it via factorio.com.

Ojelle wrote:And you will always be able to buy from here? (while receiving a steam key)
And I googled a bit, looks like steam takes a minimum 30% cut.

AFAIK Steam takes no cut registering a Steam key bought from a 3rd party, including the devs themselves. Buying direct from the web site means the devs avoid the Steam cut (about 30%) and you can still register your game on Steam if that's what you want to do.

Gregorovitch wrote:

Ojelle wrote:And you will always be able to buy from here? (while receiving a steam key)
And I googled a bit, looks like steam takes a minimum 30% cut.

AFAIK Steam takes no cut registering a Steam key bought from a 3rd party, including the devs themselves. Buying direct from the web site means the devs avoid the Steam cut (about 30%) and you can still register your game on Steam if that's what you want to do.

I think the question in all this suggestions is,if Wube get the keys they give the buyers of the game from here from steam costs them something or not. So if steam takes 30% from steamsales but the keys Wube gets costs 50% of the game, then a purchase on steam would be better.

But I think there are disclosures, so we would never know.

Phillip_Lynx wrote:

Gregorovitch wrote:

Ojelle wrote:And you will always be able to buy from here? (while receiving a steam key)
And I googled a bit, looks like steam takes a minimum 30% cut.

AFAIK Steam takes no cut registering a Steam key bought from a 3rd party, including the devs themselves. Buying direct from the web site means the devs avoid the Steam cut (about 30%) and you can still register your game on Steam if that's what you want to do.

I think the question in all this suggestions is,if Wube get the keys they give the buyers of the game from here from steam costs them something or not. So if steam takes 30% from steamsales but the keys Wube gets costs 50% of the game, then a purchase on steam would be better.

But I think there are disclosures, so we would never know.

Think of iot like this:

A *lot* of games, Civ5 or EU4 for instance, are sold by many third party vendors (or the devs/publishers own sites) and what you get is basically a Steam key which you then register in your Steam library. You can't play these games unless you register them on Steam. So obviously it is the third party vendor who takes their cut and Steam gets nothing otherwise there would be *two* retail cuts and the devs would get half as much from the sale - which devs would obviously not do, they would release a non-Steam version of the game to sell at non-Steam outlets instead.

In addition to this Steams developer documentation is clear cut: they encourage devs to sell through as many outlets as possible, not just themselves, and they explixcity state that they do not charge for activating a product code on Steam. Steam want as many people as possible to use Steam as their primary gaming service and they defintely do *not* want to be seen as following strong-arm monopolistic business practices. It makes business sense for them to provide devs with this service for free.