Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl gets quietly pushed to an early 2024 release
Expect the shooter to arrive in the first few months of the year.
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Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been delayed out of 2023 into early 2024, according to developer GSC Game World.
In the latest fact sheet from GSC Game World about its upcoming shooter, a section on distribution notes that the game "releases on PC and Xbox Series X/S in Q1 2024." It was originally expected to release some time in 2023 after having been delayed due to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The release date has been up in the air until recently, with there being some speculation that it would be releasing early December. While the fact sheet doesn't offer a specific release date, a window of Q1 does generally imply somewhere between January and March 2024, though as always with game development that could easily change.
On top of the delay, the fact sheet highlights some key points about the game, noting its combined first-person shooter, immersive sim, and horror genres, a "branching cinematic story that unfolds in the setting of a local post-apocalyptic dark science fiction landscape," and "benchmark-setting graphics powered by the Unreal Engine 5."
This delay is obviously completely understandable given the circumstances, with GSC Game World having had to relocate to Prague to continue development on Stalker 2. GSC Game World also suffered from a hack earlier this year, allegedly carried out by a group of hackers on a Russian social network, adding to the already stressful situation the devs are in.
The shooter was first announced back in 2010, though was later cancelled, with GSC Game World dissolving and then reforming, later once again announcing Stalker 2 was in development in 2018. It was originally expected to arrive in 2021, but with a combination of both the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's ongoing invasion, it has obviously needed more time.
Whenever Stalker 2 does launch, it will be available on PC and Xbox Series X/S, and will be available on Game Pass day one.