S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 against the war of aggression: One of the leading Ukrainian game developers leaving russia and belarus
And why the company will not complete its main franchise
In mid-March, a group of russian hackers managed to steal the materials of the upcoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl game from the servers of the Ukrainian game development company GSC Game World. The studio has been working on it for almost five years.
Several people calling themselves representatives of the 'russian stalker community' threatened to publish the game's plot, level maps and other content if GSC Game World representatives did not fulfil their several demands.
In particular, the hackers, acting on behalf of The Herald of the Same Stalker project, demanded that the Ukrainian company reconsider its attitude towards players from russia and belarus, apologise to them, unblock the profile of one of the said community representatives on Discord (a communication service actively used by gamers and eSportsmen) and return the russian localization to the game under development.
The company confirmed the leak of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 materials but refused to comply with the ultimatum, although the blackmailers gave them just a couple of days to think about it.
Mind decided to find out why GSC Game World had found itself in such a situation, and how the Ukrainian developer was surviving during the war.
The company's background. GSC Game World is one of the old-timers of the Ukrainian gamedev (game development) market. It was founded in Kyiv in 1995 by Sergiy Grygorovych. The company started developing its first game in 1997, but due to a lack of resources and experience, it was not completed. The first successful project of the studio was the strategy game Warcraft 2000, released in 1998. Three years later, GSC Game World announced a new game called Cossacks: European Wars. It is thanks to this game that the company has gained recognition not only in Ukraine and other CIS countries but also in the Western market. In general, Cossacks was released in three parts, let alone about a dozen more additions to the game.
However, the studio's most popular hit is the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of action/shooter games. The action takes place in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. The first part, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl, was released in 2007. The game not only gathered a huge army of fans around the world but also won more than two dozen awards. During 2008–2009, GSC Game World released two more parts: "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky" and "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat".
Inspired by the success of this series of games, whose official sales in 2007-2009 exceeded 4 million copies, the company announced in 2010 the start of development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. However, just a year later, the game development process was suspended due to lack of funding.
A reboot of the studio and restart of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. As mentioned above, after 2010, the studio began to experience difficulties. Due to the lack of investment, game development stopped and the staff was dismissed.
GSC Game World resumed its work in 2014, and since then the company has been headed by the brother of its founder, Yevgen Grygorovych. The studio brought back some 'old' developers and hired new specialists. During 2016–2017, Cossacks 3 and several add-ons to the game were released. Also in May 2018, the company announced the revival of Stalker. The game received a new name – S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The preliminary release date was April 2022. Then the developer postponed the release to December 2022, and later – to 2023.
The company's withdrawal from the russian federation and belarus. After 24 February 2022, the company was caught between two fires. On the one hand, it needed to maintain a loyal audience of players. However, on the other hand, due to russian military aggression, the company was forced to leave the russian and belarusian markets. Although, according to various estimates, at the time of the release of the first parts of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., more than half of the sales were in russia.
GSC Game World announced its decision to wind down its presence in russia and belarus in March 2022. As a result of this decision, russian and belarusian Steam users (the world's largest service for selling computer games) will no longer be able to purchase games already released by the Ukrainian studio.
The company's representatives have also warned that there will be no official release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl in russia, as well as no russian localization (voice acting) of the game. The studio made an exception for Xbox owners who have Game Pass accounts. According to the studio, the game will be available in countries where Game Pass continues operating (russia is one of them).
​Reaction to pressure from russian players. Despite the incident involving the russian stalker community that occured in March 2023, GSC Game World did not go along with the blackmailers' demands. After their demands were made public, the studio made a counter-statement.
It was said that the account of the image collaboration app belonging to one of the studio's employees had been hacked. It is not the first attempt at hacking and data theft. The company has been subjected to similar attacks for over a year.
At the same time, GSC Game World has stated that blackmail will not work on it, and it will not be intimidated. The developers also addressed the gaming community with a request: in case of further data leakage, do not share information about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, as raw working materials can spoil the impression. The company asked to wait for the official release of the game.
From this, we can conclude that the studio has not abandoned its 'long-term construction' project. An additional confirmation of this is the opportunity to pre-order the game. Depending on the chosen version, the price of the shooter will range from 895 to 1599 UAH.
Moving to Prague and plans for the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The war posed another challenge for GSC Game World. In addition to supporting the development of its main product, the company had to maintain the team and its efficiency in principle. In January 2023, the studio's employee Maria Grygorovych, the leading producer of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, gave an interview to the American tech outlet Wired.
She said that since the outbreak of hostilities, the company had been doing its best to ensure the safety of its employees. Even at the stage when the information about a possible attack first appeared, part of the staff moved to Uzhgorod, while another part of the employees moved to Budapest (Hungary).
After the start of the military aggression, GSC Game World moved its headquarters to Prague. It now employs 200 people. At the same time, about 130 employees remain in Ukraine. By the way, the company used to employ 500 people. Thus, the company has lost more than 30% of its specialists.
Mrs Grygorovych said that the relocation plan of GSC Game World had been in the works for a long time. However, due to the war, everything had to be done urgently, in a hurry and without normal logistics. Prague was chosen as a new home for the studio because the Czech Republic generally offers comfortable conditions for IT business, including office property rental.
Mrs Grygorovych is sanguine about the future of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. In her interview, she said that there is no way back, as the world's attention is focused on Ukraine. In Maria Grygorovych’s words, it's not just a game anymore, it's "...a national product designed to show that Ukraine is not only exceptionally brave on the battlefield but also valuable in terms of cultural heritage."
However, the final release date of the new Stalker is still unknown. The game's official website only states that the release will be in 2023.
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