STALKER 2: The world’s most personal project, GSC Game, is nearing completion even though half of its team is still living in an actual warzone.
One may argue that Stalker 2 is among the most extreme examples of the constant uncertainty that surrounds the creation of video games.
The game’s production began much earlier than the present predicament Ukrainian firm GSC Game World finds itself in. The 2012 release date of Stalker 2, which had been announced back in 2010, was cancelled due to the dissolution of GSC.
The studio came back together in 2014 to work on Cossacks 3, and in 2018, very early in the game’s development, they revealed that Stalker 2 will be released, even though GSC didn’t have a publishing agreement in place.
At the Xbox presentation at E3 2021, Stalker 2 was finally given its “proper” reveal and announcement. It was announced that the game would be released on April 28, 2022.
This obviously didn’t happen, as you can see from reading this 2024 game preview, and anyone who has even the tiniest interest in global events will be able to tell why.
GSC declared in January 2022 that the game’s original date of April 28, 2022 would now be December 8, 2022. The studio said, “Those extra seven months of development are necessary to fulfil our vision and achieve the desired state of the game.” “We have an exciting and significant year ahead of us, with more details, updates, and showcases on the way.”
43 days later, Russia launched the worst attack on a European nation since World War II when it invaded Ukraine. The studio placed Stalker 2 development on hold in order to concentrate on “helping our employees and their families to survive,” since there were far more essential things that needed to be done.
Some employees relocated to the Czech Republic to continue working and avoid the turmoil, where a new office was established.
Some employees, including narrative designer Maksym Hnatkov, community manager Oleksii Ivanov, and lead AI engineer Dmytro Iassenev, stayed to volunteer in the Ukrainian military or in the country.
GSC said that development had begun only a few months after Russia began its invasion, but it was already obvious that the project would not be completed by December 2022, even though it wasn’t mentioned at the time. As expected, the game was postponed until 2023 once more. The game was then reportedly moved back to the first quarter of 2024, according to a new trailer released in August 2023.
GSC now finds itself with a game whose 2024 release will mean it has the same announcement-to-release period as Duke Nukem Forever, after everything from the game’s first announcement to the studio’s breakup, reformation, and re-announcement, to Russia’s invasion utterly upending everything. But all indications point to Stalker 2 eventually being accepted.
