Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl was released in a heavily bugged– but still somehow playable state. This has divided both fans and critics alike. Hence, the Stalker 2 devs, GSC Game World, have come forth with an explanation as to why they couldn’t delay the game further and had to release it. It’s worth noting that the game originally had a target release year of 2021.
The statement came from GSC Game World CEO himself, Ievgen Grygorovych. This was what Grygorovych relayed in an interview with Eurogamer:
“It’s very hard to explain your state when you’re in a very intensive work process for many months until release, and you’re working over, over, over what you usually can do and in the highest possible stress and overwhelming period.
You have no energy at all and you decide – should we take one more marathon? And you just can’t say yes, let’s make one more marathon because you’re already broken.
You’re so tired that you would just die if you say let’s run an additional marathon. We didn’t have a chance to say let’s do it more. We just had a chance of ‘let’s do until this moment – the release date – as much as we can’,” Grygorovych recalled.
The fact of the matter is, that some of the developers in GSC Game World also had to work on Stalker 2 in war-torn Ukraine. One of the Stalker 2 devs, Volodymyr Yezhov was even killed in action fighting in the war for Ukraine.
Grygorovych explained that such conditions took a heavy toll on GSC Game World, especially when most of them didn’t know what the next day would hold. With that in mind, GSC Game World was aware of just how broken Stalker 2 was upon release. They even acknowledged how one of the most important AI systems in the game, A-Life 2.0, doesn’t work as intended or at all.
The Wartime Crunch was Exhausting
Still, the team had no choice but to stick to the launch date of November 20, 2024, rather than do another series of ‘marathon’ or crunch sessions that would likely break them. Grygorovych did state that they could just add patches and updates to fix the game anyway.
To say that the ongoing war impacted Stalker 2‘s development would be an understatement. Grygorovych was even surprised that most of the media coverage for Stalker 2 somewhat ignored the fact that it was developed during wartime and focused on bugs and fixes.
However, the GSC Game World CEO remains adamant that they’ll continue supporting Stalker 2 and that their decision to avoid a further delay is wise.
“I would love to stay in my country and live in my country and make games in my country, but it’s nearly impossible now.
It’s not perfect, we need to fix everything, it has some problems. But it’s a game! It’s a game with soul, with feelings there, with love there. Even the problems–you can’t fix them if you don’t have a game,” said Grygorovych.
