According to a post from the official STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl Twitter account, the GSC Game World team is delaying the game for seven months until December 8, 2022. Rumors were already starting to swirl about this possibly happening, but now it is actually the case. STALKER 2 Delayed for a big chunk of time.
STALKER 2 Delayed From April to December 2022
The official statement indicates that essentially this is the biggest ever release for the team and although it wasn’t an easy decision, they want to take the following seven months to make sure it is in the best possible shape for launch.
— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) January 12, 2022
Unfortunately for the team, the news hasn’t been great for the game lately as they are coming off the heels of a huge backlash for announcing that they were going to put Non-Fungible Tokens or NFT’s into the game as in-game item drops and also introduce a “metaverse” for “metahuman” NPC’s owned by paying players. The uproar was fervent and swift, forcing the team to abruptly cancel those plans instead by once again issuing another statement.
“The interests of our fans and players are our top priority for the team. We are making this game for you to enjoy.”
Originally due to release on April 28, STALKER 2 now has an extra seven months of development time. GSC Game World says they are taking that time to test, polish, and reach the desired state of the game prior to launch. This should help take all of this negative energy and turn it into something positive for the game. In pushing that idea even further, the team does note that they plan to use updates and showcases to give out more information as well. Hopefully, this will help ease fans’ fears about the Shooter ahead of its holiday release.
Let’s see if all of the new information and presumably looks at trailers and gameplay will drive anticipation once again for STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl when it releases on December 8, 2022 as a PC and Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S console exclusive for the first three months and then after that onto PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.