The original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games arrive on console today

Three classic STALKER games (Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat) are bound to be released on Xbox and PlayStation consoles for the first time. And better yet, it’s happening today.

Confirmed during today’s Xbox Partner Showcase, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Legends of the Zone Trilogy is out today for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S via backwards compatibility. The Xbox One version hits today, while a patch is due out later this year to bring additional graphic enhancements and features, per the . [Update: After publication, GSC Game World confirmed that the collection is coming to PS4 and PS5 in a similar manner. We’ve updated the article to reflect as much.]

While unprecedented, this move isn’t necessarily totally unexpected, as the upcoming STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is still on its way. With the long-awaited sequel bound to drop on September 5, 2024, releasing the t♈hree classic PC games on consoles before the big event is an excellent opportunity for GSC Game World to drum up some excitement well ahead of time.

The Legends of the Zone

It’s going to be particularly interesting to see whether the Legends of the Zone re-release will also launch on PC, and what sort of upgrades might the developer have spliced into the package. Whatever the case may be, it’s curious to see whether the mod.io support that GSC plans to roll out for Legends of the Zone will match up to its the massive mod support S.T.A.L.K.E.R. already sees on PC.

Regardless, the ability to play the old STALKER games on consoles is not something we expected to see, so it’s a thrilling development no matter what.