Ukrainian developer has to postpone Stalker 2 again, release in 2023

Ukrainian game developer GSC Game World has postponed the release of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl to 2023. Initially, the game was supposed to be released in December of this year, but due to the conflict in Ukraine, this no longer seems feasible.

Survival shooter delay was inadvertently revealed by the official Xbox account on Twittershowing that Stalker 2 is slated for 2023, no longer for December 2022. PC Gamer subsequently confirmed that the developer does indeed have a delayed release date in mind. “The news came out a bit faster than intended, because we actually wanted to announce this sometime in the next few days. But yes, the game will indeed be released in 2023,” confirms an employee of the company. No specific new date has been announced yet.

GSC Game World’s YouTube Channel
strongly opposes the invasion of Ukraine

Although GSC Game World has not yet confirmed this, it is almost certain that the current conflict in Ukraine is the cause of the delay. Development of Stalker 2 was temporarily halted in March shortly after the outbreak of war, and the company was evacuated from its hometown of Kyiv that same month.

The company also spoke out strongly against the conflict, including changing the thumbnail of all its YouTube videos to a Ukrainian flag with a message about the deaths of Ukrainians as a result of the invasion by the Russians. Also, the official subtitle of Stalker 2 was changed from ‘Heart of Chernobyl’ to ‘Heart of Chornobyl’, according to the Ukrainian and not the Russian spelling of the infamous city.