The Long Dark creator apologizes to Manor Lords team after criticism of the hit city builder's early access cadence draws comparisons with his cult survival game

The Long Dark.

The creator of cult survival game The Long Dark has apologized to the team behind smash-hit city builder Manor Lords after criticizing its update cadence.

Last week, Hinterland CEO and The Long Dark director and writer Raphael van Lierop hit out at Manor Lords, prompting a response from its publisher's CEO, Tim Bender. At the time, van Lierop argued that "Manor Lords is a pretty interesting case-study in the pitfalls of Early Access development," due to its relatively slow update cadence thanks to its very small development team. In response, Bender stated that "not every game" should be a live service-style conveyor belt of updates.