Dev Diary – 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 SCREENSHOTS

First, 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 TIMINGS

Barring unforeseen disasters, you should expect to see Episode Five go live on Steam on March 31st at 10AM Pacific Time. Xbox and PlayStation versions should follow within hours of the Steam launch, as each platform’s servers propagate the update around the world. Please keep in mind that we have no control over when the update eventually comes to you, based on where you are on the globe. We appreciate your patience around this.

SWITCH LAUNCH PLANS

Since the Switch certification process is so much slower than the other platforms, we will not be able to launch the Switch version of Episode Five on March 31st. Our typical plan with major Switch releases is to ensure the first set of critical issues that show up with launch get fixed in Hotfix 1, and then we submit the hotfixed version to Nintendo for approval. This helps reduce the chances of the Switch build launching broken and then us not being able to fix it quickly due to the 20-30 day turn-around on updates.

Based on this timing, our hope is to have Episode Five out on Switch by the end of April, but depending on external timings, it could take longer. We’ll keep you posted regarding progress, in our forums and on Bluesky.

SETTING EXPECTATIONS

Episode Five is a bit different than our other episodes, in that the focus is very much on wrapping up the WINTERMUTE storyline. As such, the world was designed and built around the needs of the story, including having sections playable as Mackenzie and different sections playable as Astrid. This means that while there are certainly open-world sections of the episode, there are also sections that tend to be a bit more linear than our typical work.

There’s a heavy emphasis on storytelling and cinematics in the episode. I believe the team has done our best work in this area to date. 

Episode play times are always difficult to pin down as they vary so much from player to player, but we are consistently seeing 12-15 hour play times for Episode Five.

If this is your first time playing WINTERMUTE, please keep in mind that each episode reflects the period during which it was created by the team. Our tools and our skill with them has improved over the years. While I still think the earliest parts of the game are solid and wonderful experiences, they do show their age in some ways. It’s worth playing through them to get the full story, which is concluded beautifully in Episode Five. I encourage you not to simply skip to Episode Five if you are new to the story, but we hope you can play the earlier episodes with their age consideration in mind and be gentle in your assessments. 

Episode Five answers many questions about previous events in the story, as well as what may be coming in the future. Please think about your fellow TLD fans when you are playing, and try to avoid spoiling the experience for them.

If you are a content creator (Streamer, YouTuber, etc.), please use Spoiler warnings in any videos you make. If you would like a game key, please use the following link. If you have a favourite content creator you’d like to see play THE LONG DARK, please share that link with them.

We really hope you all enjoy the experience, and feel it was worth the wait! I certainly can’t influence how you will feel about the game, but I’m very proud of the work the team has done bringing this story to a close.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

By end of day, the Episode Five build will be locked with no more changes accepted. By this time next week, the build will be submitted to the console platforms so that it can be certified and ready to launch on March 31st. Some of the team will already be on a much-deserved break. The last several months of the episode’s development have certainly been tough on the team. After they rest, there will be hotfixes to be done, and all the other typical parts of development that tend to keep us busy after big releases.

Beyond that, the end of WINTERMUTE and the completion of Episode Five is the end of an era for Hinterland. Finally, we will be able to talk more freely about our plans and ambitions for the future. Some of those plans relate to ongoing TLD development. Some of those plans relate to our work on BLACKFROST. Some of those plans relate to other unannounced projects.

I’m looking forward to the team having more breathing room to begin sharing more news about the various things we’re working on. I’ll be excited to hear what you think about our plans for ongoing TLD dev, and for BLACKFROST especially. But for now and the next few weeks, our focus remains fully on getting Episode Five into your hands.

Many of you have asked about the Episode Five regions, and if or when they will end up being added to Survival Mode. So far I have responded with a “wait and see” approach to this. The episode has many areas and not all of them will be suited to sandbox play. Rest assured we are discussing this and will share more of our plans in the future, but it would be nice if you did not hassle the dev team about this particular topic. As mentioned, Episode Five was built for the story and not all of it was meant to be brought back into Survival Mode afterwards. We hope you can respect our intentions around this.

KEEP AN EYE OPEN…

In the days between now and March 31st, we’ll be sharing more stuff about Episode Five. More screens, more teasers, and a full launch trailer will go live on Launch Day. We’ll also share more news about Volume 3 of the TLD soundtrack, and some Episode Five merch for pre-order. 

Expect to see updates about all those things on Steam, in our forums, and on Bluesky.

THE END IS NEAR

I’ll post one more dev diary related to Episode Five, on Launch Day. Until then, please keep the dev team in mind as they wrap up work on the final part of THE LONG DARK’s Story Mode. We can’t wait for you to experience it for yourselves. The end of a decade’s worth of development  is finally coming to an end.

– Raph