Survival Sim Sequel Slips, Causing Studio To Lay Off Multiple Staff

We first learned that the frosty survival game The Long Dark was getting a sequel during 2024’s Game Awards. Called Blackfrost: The Long Dark 2, the follow-up to 2017’s excellent first-person game about surviving in the Canadian wilderness was said to be coming to early access in 2026. That’s no longer the case, with developer Hinterland’s founder Raphael van Lierop now saying it won’t be out in any form this year, and as a consequence 10 full-time developers and four contractors from the studio are being let go.

“I’m sad to share the news that I’ve made the difficult decision today to part ways with 10 of our cherished colleagues,” begins a statement from van Lierop posted to LinkedIn (thanks Game Developer). “We also will not extend some existing fixed-term contracts when they expire, impacting another 4 team members, bringing the total affected to 14.”

The reasons given allude to wider industry issues, but suggest the primary issue is that Blackfrost won’t be in a state to enter early access this year, which van Lierop says “means pushing significant expected revenue out as well, and these layoffs will help us preserve the financial resources required to get the game to launch, as well as to continue supporting our other games.”

© Hinterland / Kotaku

The original The Long Dark was first released in its earliest form in 2014, following a successful Kickstarter the previous year. One of the rare examples of a truly purposeful early access development, the shiver-inducing first-person survival sim then released regular significant updates, each developing its core ideas in new and interesting directions, until its splendid 2017 final version. And all of them ensured you were always likely to be eaten by a wolf. Its only stumble was the initial addition of its Wintermute story mode, the first two of the five chapters failing to win many over, but even these were later recreated in a far better form. Astonishingly, the fifth chapter still isn’t out, last said to be arriving on March 31, 2026, and van Lierop says the new layoffs will not affect its release. Planned updates for the original game that are scheduled to appear this year are also apparently unaffected.

“This is a heavy, heavy day for Hinterland,” says the CEO, “and our hearts are with all those affected by today’s layoff. I’m sorry to have had to let these people go.” The statement says efforts have been made to help those affected find new work, adding, “Any development studio in the industry would be fortunate to have any single one of these team members. We are a weaker studio for losing them, and they will be sorely missed.”

Being a weaker studio will surely further hinder development of Blackfrost, not least given the intention was never to release a finished game this year, but rather its earliest playable version. Hopefully some additional money will come in to Hinterland with today’s news that the original The Long Dark is finally returning to GOG, after being mysteriously pulled from the store in 2018. It’s on the freshly independent PC gaming store with a 25-percent discount for the next week.