- The Long Dark sequel Blackfrost hasn't been cancelled, but developer Hinterland are shifting a bit more focus onto the original's survival mode - 29 August 2026
Things are shifting around a bit over at The Long Dark developer Hinterland Studio. Earlier this year, The Long Dark's story mode wrapped up with the release of Wintermute's fifth and final episode . After that, you may have fairly assumed that focus would have been mostly placed on the sequel that was announced in 2024, Blackfrost. But according to Hinterland, while Blackfrost is still in the works, the main focus will actually be put on The Long Dark's survival mode for a while. Read more
- The Long Dark will get new DLC again as studio shifts devs away from the sequel to survive an 'uncertain' industry: 'We have to adapt to this' - 29 August 2026
Survival game The Long Dark was supposed to be over when its final story episode was released earlier this year . Developer Hinterland announced its sequel, Blackfrost , two years ago and planned to go the early access route with it just like the first game... Read more.
- August Dev Diary - 28 August 2026
August Dev DiaryDear community, Since a bit of rest post Episode Five’s launch on March 31st, the team at Hinterland has been busy working on a variety of things. I’ve been holding off on providing a larger update on our activities as there are a lot of work streams happening right now, including general planning for the future, and I wanted to be able to share some more definitive information about what we have in mind. It’s still too early to share too much detail, but I figured you’d rather hear something from us even if the decisions are still taking shape. I’m sure some of what I share here will serve to drive a lot of discussions across our various community channels, and we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on your responses there.Post Episode Five: It’s All About Survival Completing Episode Five has opened up a lot of doors for Hinterland and for THE LONG DARK. A lot of work we’ve…
- Music for The Long Dark, Volume 3, Now Available! - 5 May 2026
Dear players,We’re happy to announce the availability of Volume 3 of “Music for The Long Dark”. This volume includes all the music from WINTERMUTE Episode Four: Fury, Then Silence, Episode Five: The Light at the End of All Things”, and from the TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY DLC.The total playtime is 1 hour and 56 minutes, and the soundtrack is now available on Steam mp3 and lossless FLAC quality) and at Bandcamp (mp3 and lossless WAV quality). We’ve also updated the previous two volumes on Steam to include the lossless FLAC versions of those tracks (previously only available as mp3s).We took this opportunity to address a name and track number issue with the earlier volumes. We’ve removed the duplication of the track called “Hope” in Volume 1 which was also included in Volume 2 as “Onward”; the track still exists on Volume 1, and to make up for removing the duplicate version on Volume 2,…
- The Long Dark WINTERMUTE Updated to version 2.24 -- Episode Five version 2.54 - 23 April 2026
Hello players,We have just updated THE LONG DARK to: Survival: 2.55 181032Episode Five: 2.54 181117WINTERMUTE: 2.24 181038 This is a Hotfix for THE LONG DARK: WINTERMUTE, addressing bugs introduced with the Episode Five release. Known Issues Spoilers Ahead! The team is currently aware of the following issues in the game. If you encounter one of these issues, there is no need to report it to the Support Portal. The team is currently aware of the following issues in the game and hard at work addressing them:Players who Alt-Tab away from the “Previously On” cinematic shown when beginning Episode Five, will find that the video restarts upon returning to the application. Bug FixesThis Update includes fixes for the following issues:CRASHESFixed an issue that could result in a crash when a timer was invoked by a Mission objective.\ Fixed an issue that could result in a crash during the Cable C…
- The Long Dark WINTERMUTE Updated to version 2.23 - 8 April 2026
Hello players,We have just updated THE LONG DARK to: Survival: 2.54 180535Episode Five: 2.23 180559WINTERMUTE: 2.53 180603 This is a Hotfix for THE LONG DARK: WINTERMUTE, addressing bugs introduced with the Episode Five release. Known Issues Spoilers Ahead! The team is currently aware of the following issues in the game. If you encounter one of these issues, there is no need to report it to the Support Portal. We are aware of some potential issues with loading Checkpoint saves created when Jace leads Mackenzie to the bunk room in Suzuki Facility. As we work on fixing this issue, it would be best to avoid loading checkpoint saves created during this section of Episode 5.Players using controllers (or those playing on handheld devices like the Steam Deck) will be unable to navigate back to Survival Mode using the controller face buttons. The "Back to Home" option can still be used via touc…
- EPISODE FIVE, Post-Launch Update - 2 April 2026
An Episode Five post-launch status update from our founder and creative director.Hello players! We’re about 48 hours after the release of Episode Five, and I just wanted to give you a quick update on what’s been going on. LAUNCH SUCCESSThe team was thrilled to watch the launch live at 10AM Pacific Time, along with our players. We had a successful trailer watch party on YouTube with over 3000 fans logging in to watch and participate in chat, and then we quickly overcame our historical Steam CCU peak and hit the highest concurrent player count on Steam since our launch back in 2014 -- 14,878 concurrents, and we think we might break 15,000 this weekend. This means that across all our platforms, we’ve had hundreds of thousands of players playing Episode Five. We’ve even had over 500,000 new Steam players join the community in the just the past month! We’re excited to see so many of our play…
- The Long Dark story reaches the finale with episode five out now and a big discount - 1 April 2026
The Long Dark from Hinterland Studio has finally finished the WINTERMUTE story with episode 5 bringing us the end. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/04/the-long-dark-story-reaches-the-finale-with-episode-five-out-now-and-a-big-discount/
- The Long Dark Updated to version 2.52 - 31 March 2026
Hello Community,We have just updated THE LONG DARK to: Survival: 2.52 179852Episode Five: 2.52 180269WINTERMUTE: 2.22 180167 This is a Major Update to THE LONG DARK: WINTERMUTE, introducing Episode Five and completing Story Mode. Known Issues Spoilers Ahead! The team is currently aware of the following issues in the game. If you encounter one of these issues, there is no need to report it to the Support Portal. During the SAR Mission, if a player enters a Trailer, they will be unable to leave. Reloading a previous save will be the only way to proceed.Story save files from before 2023 (prior to the Survival/Story application split) will not appear in the Episode Five executable. These files will only be visible from the Episode 1-4 executable. This can be accessed by starting a new Episode 1-4 game and then quitting at your earliest convenience.PlayStation players that load the autosave…
- EPISODE FIVE: THE LIGHT AT THE END OF ALL THINGS, NOW LIVE! - 31 March 2026
The moment you’ve been waiting for, for years, is finally here!Play as Mackenzie and Astrid as they battle the elements and other threats to finally uncover the mystery of the Aurora. The culmination of the epic Canadian survival saga is finally here, and as our friends at Shacknews put it, “Episode Five is the perfect end to The Long Dark’s story”. Episode Five: The Light at the End of All Things is a free update for anyone who owns THE LONG DARK, and is now live on Steam.To all our players, thank you for your years of patience as we finally arrive at this moment. Thank you for taking this journey with us, we hope you feel it was worth the wait, and we can't wait to see you on the other side.- The Hinterland Team
- EPISODE FIVE LAUNCH TRAILER WATCH PARTY (March 31st @ 10AM Pacific) - 30 March 2026
Join other fans of TLD to celebrate the launch of Episode Five. We’ll be premiering the launch trailer on YouTube just before 10AM, so make sure you jump in and experience the pre-release buzz!We’ll update this thread with the final video link, but for now you can simply subscribe to the Hinterland YouTube channel to be notified when the trailer goes live tomorrow morning!We hope to see you there.- The Hinterland Team
- THE LONG DARK SOUNDTRACK, VOLUME 3 COMING SOON! - 27 March 2026
Hello players!We're excited to share the news that soon you'll be able to purchase Volume 3 of THE LONG DARK's soundtrack, on Steam (with more stores to come later). Volume 3 offers nearly 2 hours of original music composed by Cris Velasco (Story Mode) and Sascha Dikiciyan (Survival Mode), and covers EPISODE FOUR: FURY, THEN SILENCE, EPISODE FIVE: THE LIGHT AT THE END OF ALL THINGS, and TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY.Volume 3 launches on April 22nd, 2026, for $9.99 USD. (Note: Track titles may contain light spoilers.)- The Hinterland Team
- HINTERLAND EPISODE FIVE DEEP LAUNCH DISCOUNT - 26 March 2026
Hello players,Many of you just purchased THE LONG DARK at a 90% "Deep Discount" during the Spring Sale. In order to ensure the best discount possible during the launch window for Episode Five coming next week, we've worked with Valve to extend the 90% discount until April 9th.This is your best opportunity to grab THE LONG DARK, which includes both Survival Mode and the Wintermute Story Mode Episodes, at a great discount. And if you already own the game, this is a great time to gift it to friends!Remember, Episode Five: "The Light at the End of All Things" launches on Tuesday, March 31st, at 10AM Pacific.Thanks, and we hope you enjoy the game!- The Hinterland Team
- Episode Five Story Teaser: Mackenzie and Jace Plot an Escape - 25 March 2026
On the run from Mathis' convicts, Mackenzie and Jace discover the meaning of, "out of the frying pan and into the fire".
- Episode Five Story Teaser: Astrid learns about Perseverance Mills - 19 March 2026
The local bartender, Cooper, explains to Astrid what's been going on in Perseverance Mills, and points her in the right direction.
- EPISODE FIVE -- KEY ART REVEAL - 18 March 2026
Hello fans,We’re thrilled to reveal the Episode Five key art today.The Episode Five poster art showcases the dual struggles of Episode Five, both Mackenzie and Astrid’s journey to find each other, help the survivors of Great Bear Island, and finally crack the secrets of the Quiet Apocalypse.This art was created by Kjetil Nystuen, who also created the revised key art and posters for Episodes One to Four that you can see here.Episode Five of WINTERMUTE, The Long Dark’s Story Mode, launches on March 31st, 2026, and brings the epic survival saga to its conclusion.- The Hinterland Team
- DEV DIARY -- MARCH 2026 -- THE END IS NEAR - 13 March 2026
Dear players,With the Episode Five launch just around the corner now, it’s time to update you on what to expect over the next few weeks.EPISODE FIVE SCREENSHOTSFirst, some screenshots taken right out of Episode Five! OUR STORY SO FAR…Since it’s been years since we launched the first parts of WINTERMUTE, the team has put together a recap video that covers the main story beats from Episodes One to Four. This is a great refresher for folks who have already played the episodes. And for anyone who hasn’t, this is your reminder that you still have time to get through the first four episodes before March 31st. Assume about 30+ hours of play time to get through Episodes One to Four.This recap video has spoilers, so if you want to start your WINTERMUTE experience on March 31st and go in completely blind, then please skip this video!LAUNCH TIMINGSBarring unforeseen disasters, you should expect to…
- The Long Dark Updated to version 2.51 - 11 December 2025
Hello Community,We have just updated THE LONG DARK to version 2.51, build 170901.This is a Hotfix to THE LONG DARK and THE LONG DARK: SURVIVAL MODE and contains multiple bug fixes. Known IssuesThe team is currently aware of the following issues in the game. If you encounter one of these issues, there is no need to report it to the Support Portal. MacOS and Linux - Please note that we have temporarily disabled Additional Shadows for Structures and Terrain to address an engine level visual bug. We are working to fix the problem and will re-enable this visual enhancement as soon as possible. This impacts both MacOS and Linux versions of the game.In some rare cases when launching the game while using HDR, the display may appear completely black. This is caused by brightness somehow being set to 0. Using a non HDR display and setting the brightness to a higher value before swapping back is t…
- The Long Dark Updated to version 2.50 - 3 December 2025
Hello Community,We have just updated THE LONG DARK to version 2.50, build 169730.This is a Hotfix to THE LONG DARK and THE LONG DARK: SURVIVAL MODE containing bug fixes, as well as an upgrade to a major new version of Unity, in anticipation of the Episode Five launch on March 31st, 2026. Episode Five depends on Unity 6, so this pre-launch release will provide time to prove and stabilize the game on the new engine version before the launch. Known IssuesThe team is currently aware of the following issues in the game. If you encounter one of these issues, there is no need to report it to the Support Portal. MacOS - Please note that we have temporarily disabled Additional Shadows for Structures and Terrain to address an engine level visual bug. We are working to fix the problem and will re-enable this visual enhancement as soon as possible. This only impacts the MacOS version of the game.Pl…
- The Long Dark's final episode has been pushed back yet again, but at least it has an actual release date now - 29 November 2025
The end of The Long Dark is nigh. After more than ten years in development and seven years working on its controversial story mode, Wintermute , the climactic episode is in the final stages of production. However, those stages aren't quite as final as developer Hinterland Studio would like, so they've announced the episode won't arrive until next year... Read more.
