GSC Game World has announced another delay for the highly anticipated game Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The new release date is shifted to November 20, 2024, from the initial September 5, 2024. The delay was made known after a Reddit user on July 25 shared an email from the developers. GSC Game World later confirmed this news in a YouTube video titled "Really, again?"
(Photo : GSC Game World / Screenshot taken from Steam.)
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Development Challenges and Delays
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has had a bumpy road to development. First announced in 2010, the game was initially supposed to drop in 2012 but was canned due to internal problems within the studio. The game popped up again in 2018 with a new release window planned for 2021. From there, the game has been delayed numerous times. First, it was pushed back into April of 2022, then December of the same year.
Moreover, the development process was troubled by the fact that Russia started to invade Ukraine and the studio had to stop working on the game temporarily. The team restarted the work in May 2022 by relocating the team members to Prague. However, as it developed further, this resulted in pushing the release date to 2023 and then to 2024, partially due to the NFT controversy, a reported Russian hack, and even an office fire.
New Content and Future Plans
Regarding the delay, the developers released an official statement, which reads that they do respect the frustration of their fans, but this extra time shall be used in fixing bugs and other issues.
GSC Game World expressed its appreciation for the community's support and interest in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. To make waiting easier, they announced a special Stalker 2 Developer Deep Dive event with Xbox on August 12. It's an event for sharing new content, featuring a video walkthrough of a story quest, world overview, and fresh gameplay footage.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is now due November 20, 2024 for Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam, GOG, Epic and GSC's website.
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