Satisfactory Head Discusses Future Plans Leading to Version 1.0 Launch

gamerant.com:

Releasing in early access can offer developers a lot of benefits. NotGames' Jason Orbaum and Andrew Murray said the early access model behind episodic FMV game Not For Broadcast let them incorporate fan feedback leading up to its 1.0 launch. The same can be said for blockbuster hits like Supergiant Games' Hades, which first released in 2018, but became a Game of the Year contender in 2020. However, Satisfactory presents downsides to an Early Access model.

That's not to say the first-person factory-building simulator has been a failure; since releasing through Early Access in March 2019, Satisfactory has reached three million sales. Yet Coffee Stain Studios CEO Stefan Hanna said it's difficult to move a game from Early Access to 1.0 because the possibilities for content are limitless, meaning a team may struggle to set boundaries. Game Rant spoke to Hanna about Coffee Stain's future plans regarding Satisfactory.

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Coffee Stain Studios hit it big with Goat Simulator in 2014, providing it funding that led to horizontal expansion in its business ventures. Partner studios became official subsidiaries, like Gone North Games turning into Coffee Stain North, and it opened a publishing arm with feelers in various Scandinavian titles like Deep Rock Galactic and Valheim. The entire Coffee Stain enterprise would also be acquired by THQ Nordic (later Embracer Group) in 2018.

Yet Goat Simulator was a «joker in the deck» compared to the games Coffee Stain Studios is interested in, according to Hanna. Their first major enterprises were Sanctum and Sanctum 2, first-person tower-defense games that share DNA with the current Early Access venture. Satisfactory was originally designed as a sort of