Hero image: Permafrost. Image: SpaceRocket Games
Frozen Survival Sandbox Opens Its Early Access Doors
Permafrost is now in Early Access on Steam. Its launch announcement went up on Steam at 11:58pm AEDT on Friday. The game is developed by SpaceRocket Games and published by Toplitz Productions.
That was later than planned. The team had set a 14:00 CEST launch, which is 11pm AEDT, then held it back a few hours to fold a post-preview update into the launch build.
That update brought rebindable movement keys, which the team calls one of the most requested changes, along with performance and co-op improvements and localisation fixes.
On Steam in Australia, Permafrost is A$30.39, down 20% from A$37.99. The store page says the offer ends on 23 October. It is on Windows only.
The store page describes it as a story-driven survival sandbox. The premise is spelt out in the launch post: “The moon has shattered, and Earth is locked in endless winter.”
Players explore frozen cities, buried forests, caves and camps, restore abandoned shelters and craft tools. Some survivors will trade, and some will fight for every scrap.
A dog comes along to scout ahead, warn of danger and carry supplies. The game can be played solo or in online co-op with up to four players.
Two extra editions are offered. The Companion Edition adds the Official Companion digital book, and the Ultimate Edition adds the Official Cookbook, the soundtrack and the Permafrost novel on top of that. Edition prices were not checked for this article.
Launch weekend has not been smooth on every PC. Two hotfixes on Saturday morning turned off FSR, first on NVIDIA RTX 20 and 30 series cards, then on RTX 40 and 50 series cards, to cut down crashes.
The team says more hotfixes will follow this weekend, and it is collecting crash logs through its bug reporting section on Steam.
Source: Permafrost (Steam) – Permafrost Early Access: The Endless Winter Begins, Permafrost (Steam) – Launching in a Few Hours, Permafrost (Steam) – Hotfix 2, Steam – Permafrost