Factorio studio angers Russian gamers by increasing regional price from $9 to $174

Factorio (opens in new tab) developer Wube Software is facing a fierce backlash from Russian gamers after suddenly and sharply increasing the price of the game on Steam in Russia. The price hike resulted in a flood of hundreds of negative user reviews (opens in new tab)and while the overall rating remains “overwhelmingly positive,” the current rating is “mixed,” with just over half of the user reviews posted over the past 30 days being positive.

As shown by SteamDB (opens in new tab), the price of Factorio in Russia had held steady at 520 ($9) since Factorio’s launch in 2020. On July 14, however, it shot up to 10,000—more than $174. That’s a hell of a price for an indie game on Steam in any country, and it came without any word from the developer about a reason for the increase, or even an acknowledgment that it had happened.