Factorio upgraded with controller support - now in the stable release

Factory building and automation sim Factorio has a fresh stable release out, continuing years of free upgrades and it now has gamepad controller support. Becoming available first in the 1.1.83 experimental build that I wrote about previously, the developers continuing refining various bits in the game for a few more testing releases before pushing it out to everyone today.

The main differences from the last stable release to now include:

Features

• Added controller(gamepad) support. Change input method in Settings->Controls to play using a controller.

Minor Features

• Added contextual hotkey hints. Enable it in Settings->Interface. Useful when playing using a controller.
• When connecting wires to entities with multiple sides(combinator, power switch), the hovered side is highlighted.
• Changed --dump-data to write infinite values as the string "inf" and "-inf".
• It is now possible to blueprint entities of friendly forces.

Changes

• Updated SDL to version 2.26.5.
• Replace "Version" column in mods install menu with "Last highlighted"
• Disabled the Command+W keyboard shortcut for closing the game window on Macs. Command+Q will still quit the application.
• On macOS, left and right variants of the Command and Option keys are differentiated when not bound as a modifier.
• Improved sounds fading in and out on game resume and pause.
• Allow "Pick up items" and "Drop items" actions to be fired at the same time as other actions, in keyboard and mouse mode.
• "Pick up items" will no longer fire at the same time as other actions. This fixes character picking up items when flipping blueprints.

So now if you're on Steam Deck or desktop, you can relax and kick-back a little easier with it. Since the game actually has all the binds set up, along with on-screen controller glyphs. Making one of the best indie games ever made much more accessible to people.

To enable it go into Settings -> Controls and at the very top click the box for Controller. I previously tested it working great on Steam Deck and it also works just fine with an Xbox Series X pad on desktop Linux too:

Factorio is available to buy on GOG, Humble Store and Steam. It has Native Linux support and it is rated Steam Deck Playable by Valve - but that may need updating now.