Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World has announced a two-month delay for emergency bug-fixing.
The highly-anticipated first-person shooter was intended to release on September 5, 2024. It’ll now launch roughly two and a half months later, on November 20 instead. The game is still set to launch on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC and day one on Xbox Game Pass.
As reported by IGN, Stalker 2 director Yevhen Grygorovych released the following statement about the latest delay: “We know you might be tired of waiting, and we truly appreciate your patience. These two additional months will give us the chance to fix more ‘unexpected anomalies’ (or simply ‘bugs’, as you call them).
“We are always grateful for your ongoing support and understanding – it means the world to us. We’re just as eager as you are to finally release the game and for you to experience it for yourself.”
This isn’t the first time Stalker 2 has received a sizeable delay. Back in January, it was announced that the game would miss its original Q1 2024 release date “for the sake of yet another wave of polishing.” At the time, it was then slated to launch nine months later in September.
Despite all the setbacks, including a rather terrifying office fire late last year and, of course, the ongoing war in the developer’s home country of Ukraine, it seems that fans are remaining excited for Stalker 2. The game won PC Gaming Show 2023’s ‘Most Wanted’ award, so it does appear that the hype is still alive and well for the anticipated shooter.
Until November, then, you may want to tide yourself over with the Stalker: Legends of the Zone trilogy pack which includes all the original games. It also made them available on PlayStation and Xbox consoles for the first time.