Factorio is set for its last major update soon, developer Wube Software has announced in a blog post.

The influential strategy game about building and creating automated factories launched on Steam in early access form in February 2016, before launching proper in August 2020. It is a huge hit for Wube, one of those eternal Steam games with addictive gameplay mechanics, complex systems, and near infinite replayability. Factorio, which has seen superb support over the years, is credited with popularising the factory-building and automation genre on PC, and retains an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ user review rating on Valve’s platform.

"I can’t imagine how different Steam gaming landscape would have been if there was no Factorio," John “Bucky” Buckley, communications director and publishing manager for Palworld developer Pocketpair, said in a post on social media. "Thank you for making an incredible game!"

Managing expectations on the scope of the 2.1 update, Wube said: “Generally, we are happy with the game design of Factorio and Space age. The progression is good, things are mostly well balanced (one or two exceptions), and there isn't anything we feel is majorly missing. That is to say, we didn't go into 2.1 development with grand designs of large new pieces of content or huge features.”

To that end, the 2.1 update will focus on quality-of-life improvements, add some “small” features, polish the game in some areas, and makes improvements to modding. It will not add new planets, enemies, or research trees or resource chains.

Wube will spend the next few weeks in closed beta testing, with an experimental 2.1 release set for the end of June. “Once released, we will have the usual bugfixing, before our summer vacations start in July,” the developer added. “Importantly, we plan to keep 2.1 as experimental over the whole summer (I.E, not mark it stable), so that mod authors will have plenty of time to update.”

Long-term, though, 2.1 signals the end of major updates for Factorio.

“We envision 2.1 as our last major update of Factorio, and we will shift the focus onto long term support,” Wube explained. “So things like bug fixes, platform support/compatibility, modding features, etc. Other than that we feel we've reached a good place to conclude the active gameplay development.”

So, an end of an era for Factorio, but Wube is already working on other projects. Just don’t expect to hear about them for a while (“honestly there will not be anything to share for a long time”).

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.