Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl Release Delayed Until December 8

Publisher GSC Game World has postponed the release of Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl to December 8. The game was supposed to be released on April 28. With these seven extra months, the developer wants more time to improve, test and refine the game.

According to GSC Game World more time is needed to realize the ‘vision’ of the development team and to get it in the desired state. In particular, more time is needed for testing and fine-tuning the game, the publisher writes.

According to the developer, it was not an easy choice, but the delay is necessary to deliver a game that can live up to expectations. Those expectations are high; previous Stalker games in the series, most notably 2007’s Shadow of Chernobyl and 2009’s Call of Pripyat, have a large fan base. Call of Pripyat is also the last Stalker game to be released.

Stalker’s Ukrainian publisher recently came under fire for planning to add NFTs to the game. They came back to this after criticism. Stalker 2 will be released for Xbox Series X, S and PC and will be part of Xbox Game Pass upon release. The game runs on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5.