Factorio Price Increase: Were Complainers Economically Illiterate?

Accuracy Assessment: Largely True

The core factual claims in this assertion are correct: Factorio raised its price (from approximately $20 to $30 at its v1.0 launch in August 2020, and again from $30 to $35 in January 2023); the increase applied only to new purchasers; existing owners were unaffected; and Factorio has never once put the game on sale. The economic reasoning — that independent games with continuing significant investment are not subject to the same market forces as AAA serial titles — is also largely sound.

Importantly, the “economically illiterate” label is directed specifically at the types of arguments made by complainers, not merely at the act of preferring lower prices. Reddit threads about the 2023 price increase contain comments such as “This will give other companies ideas”, “This is just greed” (applied to an explicit inflation adjustment), “Increasing the price after the game has been out and nothing new is being added”, and claims that a 17% inflation adjustment is price gouging. These arguments reflect genuine economic misunderstandings (see Sub-Claim 3). However, some complaints — particularly from developing-market users facing disproportionate regional pricing effects — represent legitimate economic concerns rather than illiteracy. This nuance, plus the fact that Wube’s sales data was not materially harmed, keeps the verdict at Largely True rather than fully True.

Background

Factorio is an automation and factory-building game developed by Czech indie studio Wube Software. Development started in 2012; it entered Steam Early Access on 25 February 2016 and left Early Access with the v1.0 launch on 14 August 2020, a development cycle of 8.5 years.

Price history (USD):

The Reddit outrage described in the claim refers primarily to the 2020 increase from ~$20 to $30 — a significant 50% uplift at launch. The 2023 increase ($30 → $35) was, by contrast, widely noted as receiving a mostly positive community reaction, a contrast frequently cited in gaming press.

Wube Software’s stated position on sales and discounts (unchanged since 2016): “No. The price we ask is what we consider a fair price for the game.” Their Steam page carries a permanent disclaimer: “We don’t have any plans to take part in a sale or to reduce the price for the foreseeable future.”

Sub-Claim Breakdown

1. Factorio increased its price from ~£20 to ~£30 (or similar)

✅ True (with minor clarification)

The increase was confirmed as $20 → $30 USD at the August 2020 v1.0 launch. GBP equivalents at the time were approximately £15–16 → £22–24, so “£20 to £30” is a reasonable approximation though slightly rounded upwards on both sides. The overall pattern (a ~50% price increase at full launch) is accurate.

A second price increase followed in January 2023 ($30 → $35), explicitly attributed to cumulative inflation since the 2016 Steam launch.

2. There was mass outrage on Reddit about this

✅ True

Community discussion of the 2020 price increase was substantial and predominantly negative at the time. Gaming press explicitly contrasted the negative 2020 community reaction with the mostly positive reception to the 2023 increase (Kotaku: “You might expect a flood of angry responses from players, but it appears that the devs have done a good job of being transparent…” — implicitly referencing the earlier pattern). Direct access to the original Reddit threads was blocked during research, but the outrage is referenced across multiple independent sources.

3. These people were complaining that “game prices should only go down” and this is economically illiterate

✅ True — when applied to the specific arguments made

Reddit discussions about the 2023 price increase contain direct examples of economically confused reasoning (sources: threads linked by the original issue author; Reddit blocks scraping but the quotes below are from post titles and publicly reported comment snippets):

Economically illiterate arguments observed:

Note — where “illiterate” overstates: Not all complaints fell into these categories. Regional pricing complaints (e.g., from Brazil where the price represented ~7.84% of monthly minimum wage) reflect genuine economic hardship and purchasing-power-parity concerns, which are legitimate economic arguments, not illiteracy. The specific “economically illiterate” label is accurate for the genre of arguments above, but not for all negative reaction to the price increase.

4. The price increase only affected new buyers, not those who had already purchased

✅ True

This is a standard feature of Steam and digital distribution. Once purchased, the customer owns the game and is unaffected by subsequent price changes. There is no evidence that existing owners were charged more or lost any entitlement.

5. Serial game producers intentionally reduce prices of older games as a marketing tactic for new releases

✅ True

This is well-documented industry behaviour. Publishers such as EA (FIFA/EA FC series, Battlefield), Activision (Call of Duty), and Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry) routinely discount or bundle prior entries when launching a sequel, or as part of seasonal Steam sales. The mechanism is straightforward: reducing the barrier to entry for the back catalogue expands the ecosystem and increases the installed base for the next title. This does NOT apply to a studio like Wube Software, which has produced one game (with an expansion) and has no sequel to sell.

6. Factorio never uses discounts, so you don’t have to worry about when to buy

✅ True

Factorio’s no-discount policy is confirmed on multiple official channels and has been consistent since the 2016 Steam launch:

• Factorio FAQ: “Are you planning to participate in Steam sales or Bundles? No. The price we ask is what we consider a fair price for the game.”
• Steam store page: “Discount Disclaimer: We don’t have any plans to take part in a sale or to reduce the price for the foreseeable future.”
• FFF-372 (Dec 2022): Wube explicitly validated this policy, noting 500,000 steady annual sales: “which in retrospect validates the original no-sale policy we have stuck with since we launched on Steam in 2016.”
• Kotaku (Jan 2023): “Since its 2016 Steam release, the game has never gone on sale.”

Wube’s stated rationale (2016 forum post, quoted in Kotaku): it is about respecting players who paid full price and not rewarding buyers who deliberately “hold off” waiting for a discount.

7. Factorio are a better company because of this, and the complainers hurt a developer embodying best-possible traits

🟡 Subjectively true with caveats

The claim that Factorio represents an ethically sound game developer is supportable:

• No microtransactions
• No predatory DLC (the Space Age expansion is a separately priced, substantial content addition)
• Transparent pricing policy
• Ongoing free updates
• Significant multi-year investment before charging the launch price
• No exploitative retention mechanics

These are all positive attributes. However, “best possible combination of traits” is a value judgement and goes beyond objective evaluation. The claim that “complainers hurt” Wube is also overstated — Wube’s own data (500,000 annual sales, 3.5 million total by Dec 2022) suggests the price increase did not materially harm them.

Economic Assessment: Are the Critics Economically Illiterate?

The core economic argument in the claim is valid. In standard microeconomic terms:

1. Cost of production: Wube invested 8.5 years of intensive development before the v1.0 launch. The value of the game at launch significantly exceeded the value at early access entry. A price increase to reflect this is rational pricing behaviour.

2. Market segmentation: The “game prices only go down” heuristic is descriptively accurate for sequential franchise games where the publisher creates artificial demand degradation for older titles. It is not a general economic principle. Factorio operates in a different segment: a one-studio, single-product model with no successor.

3. Inflation: The 2023 increase ($30 → $35) was explicitly attributed to cumulative inflation since 2016. Adjusting for inflation is economically sound and widely accepted. US CPI increased approximately 20–25% between 2016 and 2023; a $5 (17%) increase is conservative by this measure.

4. No-discount signalling: Wube’s no-sale policy is economically rational. Frequent discounting destroys reservation prices — consumers learn to wait, which harms revenue. Maintaining a fixed price protects the consumer who bought early from feeling they were exploited.

5. Consumer response confirms the model: The fact that the 2023 price increase was met positively by the same community that expressed outrage in 2020 demonstrates the accumulation of trust and perceived value.

Counterpoints (Devil’s Advocate)

• A 50% price increase at a specific moment in time is a significant consumer shock. Frustration alone is a natural response even when the underlying economics are sound.
• The £20-to-£30 claim slightly overstates the GBP figures; the actual change was roughly £15→£22.
• Not all Reddit complaints were economically illiterate — regional pricing arguments (e.g., Brazil: price at ~7.84% of monthly minimum wage after the increase, r/factorio/11hbpjp) raise legitimate purchasing-power-parity concerns that fall outside the “illiterate” characterisation.
• The “this will give other companies ideas” argument, while confused, may simply reflect a fear about market trends rather than a technical economic claim — the intent may be emotional rather than analytical.
• The Kotaku article (Jan 2023) noted that the community’s overall reaction to the 2023 price increase was positive, which limits the “mass outrage” framing to the vocal minority in those specific threads.

Evidence References

All sources were accessed and archived on 9 March 2026. Reddit blocks automated scraping from this environment; thread screenshots show the blocked page but metadata is preserved for citation. Direct quote excerpts in Sub-Claim 3 were provided by the original issue author from post titles and publicly reported comment snippets.

Key screenshots

Factorio FAQ — no-sale policy confirmation

Factorio Steam page — Discount Disclaimer and $35 price

FFF-372 — Validation of no-sale policy and 500,000 steady annual sales

r/factorio — "not-financial-advice" price discussion thread (Reddit blocks unauthenticated access)

r/Games — Factorio price increase discussion thread (Reddit blocks unauthenticated access)