CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed months ago, and as of March the developers are sticking to a September 17 release despite working from home due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The highly-anticipated AAA title has apparently had a big effect on the official launch of Wube Software's construction management game Factorio, which will be coming out five weeks early to avoid conflicting with Cyberpunk 2077.
The Factorio developers announced Friday they are pulling the release date for version 1.0 from September 25, 2020 to August 14, 2020 because, "We think any release close to such a monumental game is going to feel some negative effects," which is a fair assessment given CD Projekt Red is the most valuable video game company in Europe. The developer's made Factorio's release earlier rather than later because planned additions for the initial date announced last November have been cut, and extra time was budgeted for delays that is no longer necessary to abide by since "the general feeling in the office is that the game is pretty much done."
During the next ten weeks, Factorio devs will be focusing primarily on finalizing the game, updating its trailer, and preparing marketing materials according to Friday's blog post. It assures fans that any cut or postponed content was coincidental, not a result of wanting to avoid Cyberpunk's release, and that once version 1.0 is out the studio can "start thinking about fun and exciting new things."
The independent game has been in development since 2012, joining the likes of titles with long alpha and early access periods that have garnered large fanbases such as Mojang's Minecraft and Cloud Imperium Games' Star Citizen. Factorio revolves around a simple concept: While trapped on a strange planet, the player must gather resources and build optimized factories with which to convert those resources into continually more useful materials to keep expanding.
Though that conceit is nothing like the story-driven, open-world ideas found in Cyberpunk 2077, the niche audience it captures should undoubtedly be served better with more of a dedicated launch window. Currently CD Projekt Red is planning a Cyberpunk 2077 Night City Wire Event for players to learn more about its game in June.
It's great to see that Wube Software will be able to handle an earlier launch, but plenty of other titles have been delayed amid the ongoing pandemic. For instance the tabletop RPG Cyberpunk Red, a prequel to Cyberpunk 2077, was indefinitely delayed from its planned June release.
Factorio is available in alpha on Linux, Mac, and PC. It will release version 1.0 on August 14, 2020.
Source: Factorio Blog