Sandustry left "upcoming" status on August 13, 2026, when it entered Early Access on Steam, GOG and the Microsoft Store — and arrived on PC Game Pass the same day. The date was announced on June 25, 2026, about six weeks ahead of launch.
For price, review score and player-count figures, see the data table on the homepage — those numbers move too fast to repeat on every page.
The road to 1.0
The developer's Early Access Q&A on the store page sets expectations directly:
- Planned Early Access length: about one year — which points at a 1.0 around late 2027. Treat that as intent, not a promise; automation games are notorious for extending their EA runs when the community is healthy.
- What is planned: additional buildings, resources, production chains, quests, biomes and technologies, plus refined procedural world generation.
- Earlier dev notes (from the demo era) also named advanced materials, a creative mode and a modding framework — the modding framework has already begun shipping (see the mods guide).
- The EA build is described as fully playable with all advertised content, and the price may rise as content lands.
There is no formal dated roadmap page; the list above is assembled from the store Q&A and the developer's Steam posts.
Patch history
The launch week set a quick cadence — three patches in the first six days:
| Date | Version | Headline changes |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 13, 2026 | EA launch | Release with introductory discount |
| Aug 14, 2026 | v0.5.3 | Crash diagnostics, cloud-save memory fix, clearer blocked-objective messages, --sandustry-no-overlay-gpu-flags launch option |
| Aug 16, 2026 | v0.5.4 | Faster filter editing, Tier 5 softlock fixes, red block removal, rebindable zoom keys |
| Aug 19, 2026 | v0.5.5 | Stability and QoL pass, instruction videos → animated images (GPU crash fix), Alt+Enter fullscreen, Aura Extractor controls, modding framework on the "mods" beta branch |
Before the full game, the free demo had its own short history: a playtest in late January 2025 (patches 0.0.2–0.0.5), then Demo Hotfixes 1–8 through February 21, 2025, ending with Hard Mode, phase-through-buildings, a new flower algorithm and the Hydro Sponge upgrade. The demo has been frozen since.
How old is Sandustry?
Counting from the demo that made it famous, the game has been publicly playable since January 31, 2025. Counting from the paid release, it is an August 2026 title. Development is by solo studio Lantto Games, with publishing by Hooded Horse.