Same. I have a general rule that I don't pre-order. I also tend to wait for reviews to come in. This is because I've been burned in the past. I made exceptions to this for CP2077 and KSP2, and we all know how those went.

So what used to be more like general guidelines for myself have now become strict rules.

But Factorio has earned an exception. They've proven time and time again that the game is a product of passion and not (primarily, at least) profits. This has been clearly visible since I first bought it during early access in 2016 or thereabouts.

So its expansion will be instabuy for me. The game has simply given me so many hours of entertainment that one could argue that if anything, at least I will now have paid full price for the game I already have (I don't remember what I paid for Factorio, but it was dirt cheap).

Yup, the factorio devs have earned the trust required.

There isn't even any risk, considering the amount of detail they've covered in the dev blogs.

Yeah, they have proven that they don't release garbage, in multiple separate ways. They are the among the best game devs ever