S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is set to release on December 8

Stalker 2 has been hit with an extensive wait, as the team says that the game actually requires “thorough testing and polishing”. It is presently set for December 8, 2022 launch – seven months after its original release date. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans should stand by a few a greater number of months than expected to get their hands on the latest game in the series. Developer GSC Game World has pushed back the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl release date from April 28th to December 8th.

“These additional seven months of development are needed to fulfill our vision and achieve the desired state of the game,” GSC Game World wrote in a statement. “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is the biggest project in the history of GSC and it requires thorough testing and polishing.” Perhaps it needs somewhat more an ideal opportunity to get characters’ teeth just right.

The news comes from a short statement, shared on the official Twitter. The team doesn’t go too in-depth, basically stating that the defer will permit developers to “fulfill our vision and achieve the desired state of the game”, and that improvement should take “as long as necessary”.

“We have made a decision to postpone the release of Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl to December 8, 2022”, the statement opens. “This decision is not an easy one, but we are doing the best possible to deliver you a game that can live up to the expectations”.

The studio noticed that, albeit the decision to postpone the survival horror game was anything but a simple one, it believes “development should take as long as necessary, especially in the case of such a project.” It intends to give more insights regarding S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in the coming months.

The first-person shooter, which will be the first entry in the series starting around 2009, will at first be accessible on Xbox Series X/S and PC – it’ll debut on Xbox Game Pass. Reports recommend Microsoft has a three-month exclusivity window for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.

GSC Game World recently came under fire over its plan to incorporate NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in the game. Only one day after the fact, the studio said it would “cancel anything NFT-related in S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2” following a significant backlash.

The response from fans has been positive – if a bit baffled – anxious to get the most ideal Stalker 2 experience when it at last launches.

It’s not clear if it has had an impact on the decision, however, Stalker 2 recently found itself embroiled in a controversy. It was declared that the game would implement NFTs, permitting players to deify themselves in Stalker as a non-fungible token. The response was predominantly negative, and the feature was immediately rejected only several days after the declaration.

The postponement to STALKER 2 will probably come as a failure to certain fans, some of which have been expecting the game’s release for almost a decade now. STALKER 2 has seen a fairly strange and turbulent improvement cycle over the years, having been at first reported in 2010 just to then be cancelled only a year after the fact. In 2012, reports then, at that point, surfaced that the game was “currently in development” without a release date before news broke in 2018 that GSC was developing the sequel.

Stalker 2 has had an extended development, with an original version of the game at first planned for a 2012 release. This was rejected when the developer GSC Game World broke down in 2011 – just to change and launch improvement again in 2014. With any luck, this most recent defer will guarantee that it is definitely worth the wait, as Stalker fans haven’t had a new installment beginning around 2009.

Somewhere else in the statement from GSC, the team takes note that the decision to postpone the game “has not been an easy one”, however, that it will ideally permit them to deliver a game “that can live up to the expectations”. The statement closes by disclosing to fans that additional data, updates, and exhibits for the game will be coming at the appointed time and that the team has an “exciting and important year ahead.”

The Ukraine-based studio has previously worked concerning the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R series of atmospheric survival games as well as the Cossacks RTS games as its most significant projects. The title that started everything, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, was famous for its various postponements, with it in any event, being called vaporware before its ultimate launch in 2007, six years after the original declaration. Ideally, this fresh start for the series will not be simply unfortunate.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is coming to PC and Xbox Series X|S systems as a console launch exclusive. It will likewise be a day-one release on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscriptions.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl is currently set to launch on December 8, and will be accessible on Xbox Series X/S and PC. It will be the first game in the series to get a console release.