Satisfactory hits 5.5m sales after five years of early access, 1.0 due “this year”

As acclaimed first-person automation sim Satisfactory inches closer to the fifth anniversary of its early access launch, developer Coffee Stain Studios has revealed it’s eyeing up a version 1.0 release “this year”, and that the game has now sold over 5.5m copies.

Satisfactory released into early access back in March 2019 – initially as an Epic Games Store exclusive before making the jump to Steam the following year – and it quickly made a splash thanks its co-operative, open-world spin on the automated resource exploitation loop popularised by deeloper Wube Software’s much-loved Factorio.

In Satisfatory, Factorio’s irresistably compulsive fundamental formula – in which, essentially, you mine stuff to craft stuff that’ll make mining more stuff easier so you can craft bigger stuff and so on – plays in first-person across a vibrant, explorable sci-fi open-world, with up to four friends able to work together to achieve their goals. It’s a twist that’s clearly resonated with people too, as developer Coffee Stain has now revealed Satisfactory has sold over 5.5m copies since early access began.

News of that sales milestone comes alongside word Satisfactory will be leaving early access “this year”, although Coffee Stain isn’t being anymore specific than that just yet. What it does say, however, is that following last year’s Update 8 release – which upgraded Satisfactory to Unreal Engine 5 among other things – the team’s focus is on “working together to finalise the game”.

Coffee Stain teases that Satisfactory’s version 1.0 will include a “never-seen-before narrative alongside a factory-load of new features”, and says development “will not end once the game leaves early access”. Additionally, in the run-up to version 1.0’s arrival, the studio will hold a closed beta and registration is now open if you want to get involved.