Stalker 2 dev denies delay after cancelled pre-orders

"Early 2023" is still the expected release window.

Stalker 2 Heart of Chernobyl developer GSC Game World has alleviated concerns of another delay after a number of Xbox and PC pre-orders were refunded last week.

Those who had pre-ordered the game through the Microsoft Store began receiving communication that the orders were cancelled after Stalker 2’s release date was adjusted to “an unconfirmed date in the future.”

The game’s development has been severely impacted by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the home country of GSC Game World. Originally planned for release in April 2022, Stalker 2‘s development was put on hiatus until the studio could relocate to Prague.

While the release of the game is still currently listed on Microsoft’s Australian Xbox store for December 8, a GSC spokesperson recently told PC Gamer that the already announced delay still stood.

“We had to postpone the game to 2023 with no exact release date for now. We made the announcement at E3 Microsoft Extended show, alongside the Dev Diary and intro cutscene”, the spokesperson said.

This lack of a definitive date is the apparent cause for the cancellations due to a Microsoft policy but it has not affected PC pre-orders on other platforms.

“Microsoft refunds pre-orders for the games with no exact release date. When we announce the exact release date later on, the pre-orders will go live again for Xbox.”