STALKER 2 has been hit with another delay, pushing the game deeper into a late 2024 release date, but fans have been promised “the most comprehensive update on the game yet” in an imminent deep dive.
Initially pushed back to a Q1 2024 release, a further delay was announced in January to Sept. 5, but the title has now fallen even further into the year, with a new release date set for Nov. 20, 2024.
The STALKER 2 news will disappoint the eager fans, with even GSC Game World game director Yevhen Grygorovych admitting fans may be “tired of waiting,” but the two extra months of development will help the team fix “unexpected anomalies”—aka bugs.
On the plus side, the news of another delay comes alongside the promise of a deep dive into the game on Aug. 12, in collaboration with Xbox, which features a variety of never-before-seen content, including a world overview, footage of various locations, gameplay, and cutscenes.
The deep dive will also include a full video walkthrough of one of the story quests and intends to give fans a “full understanding of how the game plays and looks.” Precise details of the time for the deep dive are yet to be announced.
STALKER 2 will be the fourth game in the STALKER series and the first in 14 years since STALKER: Call of Pripyat, but it has endured a troubled development cycle for a variety of reasons.
Initially announced in August 2010, and given a 2012 release date, development was canceled in April 2012 before being resumed in May 2018. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 put an indefinite hold on development, before resuming after the studio moved to the Czech Republic.
STALKER 2 will be available on Steam and Xbox Series X|S, with a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.
