During the Xbox Showcase event, Stalker 2 was further delayed until 2023, disappointing fans.
During the Xbox Showcase event, an image was shown listing 50 titles coming to Xbox and PC over the next 12 months. The list is divided into games launching in 2022 and 2023, with 25 listed games coming out for each year. Stalker 2 can be seen in the 2023 release list section, indicating that the game has been delayed once more. This information is not entirely out of line with the situation surrounding the development of Stalker 2, where the developer GSC Game Studio is based in Ukraine.
In March, GSC Game World announced that development on this shooter had been halted due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Then in March the development team moved from Kyiv to Prague.
In January, GSC announced that the game, originally scheduled to release on April 28, had been pushed back to December 8. However, this was before the Russian invasion. Following the Russian attack, the developer posted a video to its YouTube channel in early March, which confirmed that development of Stalker 2 had been halted as it was dealing with the ongoing war.
“On February 24, Russia declared war on Ukraine and sent missiles, tanks and soldiers to our homeland,” they said. “Our country is forced to fight to survive again and this seems to be the price of freedom.” Of course, this also greatly affects the team’s game development and it is unknown that 2023 will not be the official launch year of the game if this situation continues to escalate.