Because it's marketed as a 'big expansion pack' and not a 'dlc' they can price it at 20€ instead of 10€. Smart.
I purchased Factorio some years ago now, and have always had the feeling that I underpaid for it over that time despite playing a lot less than some friends I know. (I think I have a mere couple of hundred hours playtime which for any other game would be crazy high!)
The devs have continuously worked on it in all that time. It’s not as if they had a bunch of expensive DLC lined up from day one as some AAA titles seem to these days.
Whatever they price their expansion at, it'll be worth the money.
What do you even do? I only have 50 hours in Factorio. After I launched my rocket, I didn't know what to do next and just kinda stopped playing.
The overhaul mod packs can pretty drastically change the game experience. It scratches the programming itch while being a break from actual programming.
I’m sure the pandemic added a multiplier to those hours that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. But I’m quite enjoying it.
It's basically them saying we consider that the next version we will ship corresponds to the work we promised (which is more than true).
Now, they want to extend this base game and are announcing that they will come back in a while with an extension. There is no subscription shenanigan, no weird trickery with you surrendering your data. They sold us something and delivered and will now work to offer another thing at a price of their choosing. Something that people will be able to buy it if they do desire and knowing what they are buying.
That seems refreshingly straightforward and honest to me.