STALKER 2 has been delayed to December

GSC is pushing the game for another seven months of development time

GSC Game World’s next foray into the post-apocalypse needs a little more time in development. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, or STALKER 2, has been delayed out to Dec. 8, 2022.

With seven additional months of time in development from its original April 2022 date, it plans to use this time to fulfill its vision and achieve the “desired state” of the game. STALKER 2 is the largest project GSC has worked on so far, and the studio says it needs thorough testing and polishing, and that development should take “as long as necessary.”

— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@s𓆉talker_thegam꧂e)

Even with STALKER 2 delayed out to the end of the year, GSC Game World says that more information and updates are still ahead. There are, of course, plenty of showcases and opportunities to detail more about STALKER 2 between now and December.

It’s a pretty substantial delay, but since delays have become pretty common in the pandemic, it’s fairly understandable. GSC Game World has also elected to take a pretty large chunk of time too, so hopefully this means a little more breathing room for the team to really dig in on STALKER 2 and be ready to hit the ground running.

This is also some extra time to potentially extricate any remaining trace of NFTs from the game. After announcing, then subsequently un-announcing their inclusion in STALKER 2, a little extra time can give GSC some more breathing room between that incident and the actual launch of STALKER 2.

We’ll see what the series has in store for us when STALKER 2 is out on Dec. 8, 2022.