Oh, how I've waited for this day. Satisfactory, the game that swallowed months of my life during lockdown, is finally exiting Early Access and launching with 1.0 on September 10, and Coffee Stain announced this release with a 1.0 update that shows nothing new, but the most important addition announced in a short, silly trailer promoting the flushing toilets. As we have written in the past, one can understand much about the game through the virtual toilet. I look forward to re-experiencing Satisfactory with new, powerful flushing thoughts.

There is a bit more Satisfactory news related to the 1.0 launch over the past month or so. Last week Coffee Stain announced that it would be raising its price from $30 to $40 before the 1.0 release. Community Manager Snat said, "This is to account for inflation, but also because we've improved the game over the years since the first release and the initial price." The price will increase "shortly after" the end of the current Steam and Humble summer sale, which is currently 50% off on Steam at $15/£14, so if you want to play Satisfactory when it hits 1.0, now is the time to do so.

In early June, Snutt explained the changes in 1.0, which may not make much sense to those who have never played Satisfactory, but may take your breath away if you have been playing for years. The developers added, moved, and changed the rarity of many resource nodes on the map. While this will undoubtedly spoil the existing build, it also opens up new possibilities and encourages long-time players to go exploring again.

A lot of balancing has also been done, first and foremost on the computers and supercomputers. Two structures that once required a supercomputer - a programmable splitter for the conveyor belt and a geothermal generator to harness the power from the geyser - are now "freed from the prison of the supercomputer" and can be composed of simpler components. The goal is to make geothermal power generation more realistic early in the game.

"Before reaching the endgame, we made some switches to give access to some of the useful tools," says Snutt, and these include gas masks, jet packs, trucks, and trains. The train no longer requires a computer to manufacture, making it easier to use early in the game. Also, computers no longer require screws (at all, whereas before they had to make a lot of screws), eliminating a major bottleneck in production.

Satisfactory 1.0 will include stories that have been on hold for a long time during Early Access; Snutt did not say that everyone should start a new save for 1.0, but honestly, how can long-time builders start over? already thinking about how to make it better this time.