While the situation at GSC Game World hasn’t been good over the last year and a half (it’s a Ukrainian studio, so they’re also affected by the Russian war against Ukraine), there might be a chance that the long-awaited second central part of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will be released this year.

Looking at Plaion’s online store (the Embracer Group-owned company formerly known as Koch Media, which also owns Deep Silver, for example), you can find S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Still, interestingly, the game also has a release date listed. Andrew Marmo (who writes for VGC) pointed out on Twitter that the same webshop leaked the Nintendo Switch version of Darksiders II and that the other provisional placeholder dates are December 31, so December 1 is not a mistake (it’s a Friday, and usually, the big games are released on Tuesday or Friday…).

Plaion has something to do with GSC Game World’s game, as they will distribute the physical copies of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The Ukrainian team’s original plan was to release the genuine second part of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (released in 2007 after many delays) in December 2022 instead of the pre-war date of April 28. We also heard that it would be playable at this year’s Gamescom so that development could be near the end.

Running on Unreal Engine 5, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was initially announced by GSC Game World in 2010, but the studio failed to meet the then-mentioned 2012 date, and the studio also disbanded in December 2011 but was resurrected four years later with Cossacks 3. Their Zone-related game was re-announced in 2018, and Microsoft signed a three-month exclusivity deal with the developers.

So on PC and Xbox Series first, we’ll see one of the year’s most anticipated games, but it will also be on Game Pass from launch day. Let’s hope it does indeed arrive on December 1.

Source: WCCFTech