There seems to be a small-scale competition between the creators of Manor Lords and The Long Dark. after Raphael van Lierop, the latter's principal developer, provided remarks. He has chosen to retract his prior remarks after receiving "heat and hatred" at Hinterland from Lierop and his crew.
This data is derived from remarks made by Tim Bender, the CEO of Hooded Horse, the publishing business ofManor Lords. Bender discusses the incredible success of Manor Lords in his piece. countering Raphael van Lierop's assertion that Manor Lords is a "case-study in the pitfalls of Early Access," given that the game has just been available for 2.5 months and has only had three minor updates, in a sense. The only developer of Manor Lords, Bender also describes how he forewarned him about the comments he would receive, "talking about missed opportunities because he failed to grow as fast as they wanted, and judging the game a failure by some kind of expectation they formed."
Lierop has apologised and said that he "should have found a better way to frame [his] original feedback" in reaction to all of this.
Perhaps Manor Lords is not really a "case-study in the pitfalls of Early Access"
"I sincerely apologise to Hooded Horse Inc., the publisher, and Slavic Magic, the developers, for any offence my message may have caused to their efforts; this is a game I really like. In addition, I apologise to each and every one of you for any hurt feelings that may have entered your timelines due to my ill-advised remarks," Lierop stated, clarifying that he is not attempting to "evade culpability for [his] initial statements."
Lierop claims that the The Long Dark team he is working on at Hinterland "is starting to be impacted by this response, and there's no reason that should be the case."
Although The Long Dark was released from Early Access years ago, back in 2017, it remains one of the few true-to-form survival games available today. While The Long Dark is a great game on its own, its much awaited Wintermute campaign mode is currently unfinished, and the rather large Tales from the Far Territory DLC acts as a stand-in while it is being worked on.
While Lierop is correct that not many Early Access updates have been released for Manor Lords since its release in late April, the majority of them have been quite substantial and meaningful. As Tim Bender points out, the game is not a live-service treadmill, thus although there is a lack of material at the moment, most players are really fine with it as it is, therefore concurrent player counts don't really matter.