Bad News: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Is Dead, Replaced

For those of us who fondly remember (and probably still play) the wonderful Stalker series and were looking forward to the new, full iteration, I've got some bad news for you.  Several months after developer GSC Game World ran into severe funding troubles and nearly cancelled Stalker 2 it seems that it has indeed gone the way of the dinosaur as the company's Twitter feed announced this morning that Stalker 2, for all intents and purposes, is dead.  Unable to financially secure the rights to the Stalker IP (including story elements and all game content), GSC shut down development and the company as well.

Fans like myself who were excited about the sequel have cause for hope though: GSC has be reformed as Vostok Games, an indie studio with the entire Stalker 2 team onboard.  Their first title, an MMOFPS entitled Survarium, takes many of the gameplay ideas from the cancelled title and transforms them into a massively online multiplayer title.  It's not due out until at least 2013 but hopefully it'll look and feel like the series we knew and loved.

You'll find Vostok's (poorly translated) pitch to fans about Survarium.  For me it's real upsetting to the series die like this.  I have such fond memories of the franchise, especially when playing Call of Pripyat.  I can only hope that, given how far along the game was, that the founder of GSC and IP owner Sergyi Grigorovich finds someone to finish it.  Hey, Sergyi: 4A Games is right across town.  Who says they can't finish it?