Stalker 2 Release Date Now Unconfirmed, Pre-Order Refunds Issued by Xbox

The successor of the wildly-known survival-horror STALKER has been rumored for years now. Stalker 2 has seen many troubles during its development, despite of which the game was up for pre-orders, and things were looking good as the game was going to release very soon. 

However, the release date of Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl has now been tagged “unconfirmed,” due to which Xbox is now issuing refunds to those who already purchased(pre-ordered) the game. 

Sequel of the cult-classic Stalker: Shadow of Chornobyl, the game was initially planned for a 2022 launch, but there have been quite a few big bumps in Stalker 2’s road to completion, the biggest of which being the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Developers GSC Game World are Ukrainian-based, and you can imagine the troubles they have had this year. The studio had immediately halted development on Stalker 2 and claimed that it would not continue work on Stalker 2 until a Ukrainian victory had been achieved.  

However, two months after the war started and development was stopped, GSC Game World revealed that work on Stalker 2 was continuing. There was a slight hiccup a while ago when a Russian streamer had accused the studio of discriminating against Russians. 

All in all, the halts and troubles have managed to delay the game’s release, but now that the players are getting refunds, things don’t look great for the game’s future. Back in June, Stalker 2 was given a new release window of 2023, but now it seems that this is no longer the planned launch date either.  

GSC had previously acknowledged the delays stating that- 

Stalker 2 is the biggest project in the history of GSC, and it requires thorough testing and polishing. We are convinced that development should take as long as necessary, especially in the case of such a project. This decision is not an easy one, but we are doing the best possible to deliver you a game that can live up to expectations 

GSC

Microsoft has yet to officially confirm its reasoning behind the pre-order scenario with Stalker 2, but considering the game cannot be purchased on the Xbox store, it seems as though the gaming giant has acknowledged that the future of the title is largely unknown.  

Stalker 2 was set to be a timed Xbox exclusive, launching on the PC and Xbox consoles before it released for PlayStation some months later. Moreover, to help with the game’s development, some of GSC Game World relocated to the Czech Republic, but other members of the Stalker 2 development team stayed to fight in Ukraine.  

We still don’t know much about the game other than its opening sequence, and hopefully, the game won’t delay much such that its hype dies. 

About GSC Game World