Permafrost and The Long Dark both make the weather the main antagonist, and both drop you into a survival sandbox you are expected to learn the hard way. The practical split is player count. Permafrost ships with online co-op for up to four people, and The Long Dark is a solo game. The Permafrost column below comes from that game's own store page. The Long Dark column is general knowledge, labelled as such in the note below.
Side by side
| Permafrost | The Long Dark | |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | SpaceRocket Games, published by Toplitz Productions | Hinterland Studio |
| Status | Early Access, launched October 9, 2026 on PC | Released, with a story mode and a survival sandbox |
| Players | Solo or online co-op for up to 4 | Solo only, no co-op mode as of writing |
| Setting | Frozen post-apocalyptic open world after the shattering of the moon | Canadian wilderness |
| Shape | Open-world survival sandbox with faction-controlled territories | First-person survival |
| Pressure | Cold, storms, scarcity and faction territory | Cold, weather and wildlife |
| Buy in | Introductory offer live on Steam | Full release pricing |
Both games ask the same question: what do you do when the temperature is the thing trying to kill you. Permafrost answers with a near-future Earth locked in endless winter, after catastrophes that culminated in the shattering of the moon.
Pick Permafrost if
- You want to survive with other people. The developers call it "symbiotic 1-4 player co-op survival".
- You want a story hook rather than only a sandbox. You play a Rook: an engineer with the skills to rebuild but little wilderness experience, pulled in by a radio signal from a long-lost friend.
- You want progression gated by exploration. Restoring abandoned shelters, repairing broken machines and reclaiming fragile technology pushes you deeper, not a menu you click through.
- You want a dog companion. Rescued from the ruins, it scouts ahead, warns of danger and carries supplies.
- You are comfortable buying into Early Access.
Pick The Long Dark if
- You want a strictly solo survival game with nobody else in the world.
- You prefer a Canadian wilderness setting to a post-apocalyptic frozen one.
- You want a narrative story mode and a freeform survival sandbox in the same purchase.
- You have no interest in co-op at all.
Co-op and story: the real split
Co-op is not a bolt-on. Steam lists Online Co-op alongside Single-player, and the developer FAQ calls multiplayer for up to four players fully implemented and functional in the current build. A fourth player is meant to make the work lighter, not the world softer.
The shared loop is explore frozen cities and wilderness, survive brutal weather, navigate faction territories, hunt, scavenge, craft and build a network of shelters. The developers describe a grounded, tense experience shaped by silence and scarcity, with no constant gunfire and no fantasy tropes, and frame the cold bluntly: "The cold is your true enemy".
Where The Long Dark pairs a story mode with a survival sandbox, Permafrost folds narrative into the sandbox: the Rook's radio signal is the opening, and the current build contains the starting point plus side quests.
Price and Early Access status
Permafrost launched into Early Access on October 9, 2026 on PC through Steam, GOG and Epic Games Store, after the publisher moved the date from an earlier August 2026 window to finish the story-based sandbox. The planned Early Access window is at least 12 months, used to add biomes, quests, mechanics, quality-of-life features and technical optimisation.
That matters for the comparison, because the developer FAQ states the price will very likely increase during Early Access and calls lower starting prices a thank-you to early players. The current Steam offer is 20 percent off, $19.99 instead of $24.99, and it ends on October 23, 2026. The Companion Edition bundle is listed at $29.68 discounted to $23.74.
Which Permafrost is this
Permafrost is also a geological term, and it is the name of other games: a 2021 strategy game, a map in Tribes, and a Yume Nikki fangame. This page is the only place on this site that names them, and only so you can tell them apart.
If you followed a search for one of those, you are on the wrong page. Everything here describes the 2026 survival sandbox by SpaceRocket Games, the Early Access title on Steam app 2254990.
What to read next
- Multiplayer and Co-op for what co-op changes.
- Survival Basics for the stats behind the cold.
- System Requirements before you buy.
- Getting Started for the first session.
Sources
- Permafrost on Steam for Early Access status, co-op, price and the developer FAQ.
- Release date moved to October 9, 2026 (Toplitz Productions) for the date change.
- Deep dive video, Steam, GOG and Epic on October 9, 2026 (Toplitz Productions) for the storefronts.