Development on STALKER 2 was stopped back in March following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with no end to the conflict in sight, the team moved out of its Kyiv headquarters and into Prague. After being closed down for several weeks, STALKER 2s Discord recently opened back up, with one fan asking whether the development of the game had been restored. Given the difficulties surrounding the dev team, fans are hoping for patience, as more information begins to trickle out.
The appearance came through The Following’s upcoming Discord channel, in which one fan asked whether the development of the game had been relaunched. It appears that GSC Game World has now restarted the development of the game, nearly two months after the game was put on hold. While GSC Game World originally stated it would not resume the development of Stalkers 2 before a Ukrainian victory was announced, the developer may have decided with the ongoing war it might want to keep working creatively on Stalkers 2. While it seems the war in Ukraine is not going to be over any time soon, GSC Game World has found a way to restart its development, which is fantastic news for anyone who wants to play the game.
The security of the game’s developers and families is far more important than any release date, and it is impossible to overstate just how hard the return to development has been given all that has transpired in recent months. When an official statement on exactly how long the game’s release may be delayed and if the developers will resume working on Stalker 2 in Kyiv or Prague is made is unclear at this point. Shortly before development was suspended, the game was moved back to December, but as of now, no word has been released about how its release schedule has been affected by recent developments.
While the developers of GSC Game World had originally said they may not restart improvements to STALKER 2 until after Ukraine’s victory was announced, it is possible that the developers determined it may have needed to continue creative work on it as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. GSC Game Worlds had earlier expected STALKER 2 to release in December 2022 which was already delayed from its initial early 2022 goal but it has now lost almost three months’ worth of development time. GSC Game World is also supporting their home country Ukraine wherever it can, changing STALKER 2s subtitles to reflect Ukraine’s orthography for Chornobyl, for instance.
