GSC Game World has announced that STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has officially gone gold. This means the game is done, and a master copy has been sent for mass production (the game will be released on physical discs for Xbox, in addition to digital).
In theory, this means no more delays are in order, although there's a famous precedent: CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077, which was confirmed to have gone gold on October 5, 2020, ahead of its planned November 19, 2020 launch date. However, on October 27, the Polish developer was forced to announce a short delay to December 10. The reasons would later become obvious, as even the delay was not enough to prevent a rough launch, especially on consoles.
STALKER 2 fans certainly hope this won't be the case, both regarding the delay and the rough debut. After all, this game already had to suffer through a long and tough road to get here. It's been over fifteen years since the last franchise entry, 2009's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. The first attempt at a proper STALKER 2 project was immediately started by GSC Game World, which announced the game in August 2010 for a tentative 2012 release window.
However, the Ukrainian studio was dissolved in December 2011, inevitably leading to the cancellation of that project. Luckily, that wasn't the end of the story. Evgeniy Grygorovych, brother of GSC Game World's original founder Sergiy Grygorovych, successfully resurrected the studio in late 2014. After making the real-time strategy game Cossacks 3, GSC Game World returned to what it really wanted to do: make STALKER 2. The new announcement came in May 2018 with a targeted release window of 2021.
As time passed, the release was moved to April 2022 and then again to December 2022. But the disruption caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine forced work on the game to stop altogether for some time. GSC Game World subsequently went silent for a long while, and fans couldn't help but wonder whether their long-awaited sequel would ever materialize.
Finally, a playable demo was brought to Gamescom 2023, and the developers used it to gather feedback and further improve STALKER 2. In early 2024, the studio announced that the game would launch on September 9, though we later discovered one final delay to the current date: November 20, when the game will be available on PC and Xbox Series S|X.
Will STALKER 2 live up to the hype? Please vote in the poll below to let us know your opinion.
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Yes, I'm confident it will 59%, 246 votes246 votes 59%246 votes - 59% of all votes
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It's probably going to be decent but not as good as the first one 29%, 121 vote121 vote 29%121 vote - 29% of all votes
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No, it couldn't possibly do that 11%, 47 votes47 votes 11%47 votes - 11% of all votes
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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