It’s been a few months since we heard from GSC Game World, the studio behind Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl (the name was changed in March in a subtle pro-Ukraine move). The crisis is still ongoing as Russia continues to impose its military forces on the nation, but GSC has started up game development again in spite of the situation.
The news comes from PC Gamer, which reports that the development resumption announcement was made on the game’s Discord server. “Community representative Mol1t has said that ‘[development] continues’ and ‘the work is in progress,'” the story reads. This update seems to come from a place of hope, based on GSC Game World’s reason for pausing development in the first place.
A few weeks into Russia’s occupation of the country, the studio put Stalker 2 on hold “to help [its] employees and their families survive.” The wording at the time was rather dire, but there was still a light at the end of the tunnel. Development would continue “after the victory” over Russia, GSC said at the time. The conflict has not been resolved, but the fact that GSC is ready to continue development says that it’s hopeful of seeing an end to the invasion soon and, just as importantly, that the aforementioned employees and families are safe.
GSC Game World was one of the first to urge the video game industry to help in any way that it could when Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, companies like Itch.io raised more than $6 million with a charity bundle. Fortnite’s fundraiser concluded with $144 million raised for relief.
Now that development is back on, those anticipating Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl will be wondering about its release date again. Understandably, GSC gave no specific date when announcing that development had resumed. The game was already delayed before the Ukraine crisis, so don’t expect it to launch anytime soon.
