GSC Game World couldn’t delay the release of the long-awaited sequel any longer. The Ukrainian studio has discussed this extensively.

Like many other survival games, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has evolved from an initial, somewhat clunky “larva” stage into a playable, highly recommended “butterfly.” While it would be tempting to keep these games under wraps until they’re ready and relatively bug-free, GSC Game World’s CEO and head of game direction, Ievgen Grygorovych, told PCGamer at Gamescom that deciding on a release date is more complicated than one might think. When asked why the studio didn’t wait until the game was in its current state to release it, Grygorovych cited creative and financial reasons.

GSC Game World has more legitimate reasons than most to release an unfinished game. The Ukrainian studio was working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl when the Russian invasion interrupted development. This forced the team to leave Kyiv. Later, a devastating office fire and numerous data leaks further complicated their work. While the game’s flawed version was released after delays, Grygorovych cited the dire state of the market as another factor, in addition to the unique difficulties faced by GSC Game World.

“To make something better, you need to receive feedback, and this feedback should be fresh. From a business perspective, it’s also impossible because it’s expensive to do two years of additional work. In most cases, it’s unrealistic. You always have to find trade-offs that allow you to provide the best possible experience with the resources you have. Every developer would like to have an infinite amount of time, but the market is awful. There are lots of layoffs and studios are closing. So, the state of the market is not very promising. We’re just trying to find the ‘best configuration we can,'” Grygorovych said.

Honesty has always been a virtue.

Source: PCGamer