A long and tedious road.
The hostile and treacherous Zone.
Unbelievable treasures that might cost you everything.
A blood trial, separating your old life from a new one...

Welcome to The Zone — an area of exclusion around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, a seamless open-world environment full of radiation, mutants and anomalies, it keeps drawing adventurers from beyond the perimeter.

Bounty hunters dwell deep into the Zone, driven by its treasures and mysteries. These people are known as stalkers.

Are you ready to become one of them?

Initially planned for April 2022, then pushed until Dec, 2022, delayed until 2023, scheduled for Q1 2024, GSC Game World announced that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is now planned for September 5, 2024.

While there is absolutely no way to make another delay sound less dim, we decided to be clear about our reasons to postpone the game for the sake of yet another wave of polishing.

During Gamescom 2023, GSC Game World decided to show a small part of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 to the players publicly for the first time ever. This one-time initiative then transformed into a journey from one event to another across Poland, France, Brazil, Singapore and other countries. Thousands of players were able to play the game themselves and give the much-needed direct feedback afterwards.

Two key points emerged from that.

The first one was: it absolutely felt and played like a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, which basically summed up both the key intention and the main inspiration for the project from the very beginning. The second one was: on the technical side of things, the game apparently needed more time in the oven. 

Throughout the frankly challenging development process, time was of the team's main essence. Seeing the scope of polishing and understanding the limits of the players’ patience, GSC was absolutely dedicated to releasing the game in Q1 2024. That, however, doesn’t change the fact that at the beginning of this year, certain technical imperfections still hold S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 below the expected standards for the final experience the fans are waiting for. 

This extended journey to the release will be supported with much more content from the game to be shared later this year.

The war in Ukraine continues. GSC Game World has been supporting our home country in all the ways we can. For those willing to do the same, we recommend following a link to the official charity fund of Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine himself:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl will feature a branching story with multiple endings. Players will have to constantly make uneasy choices with tough consequences — some of them changing the world itself.

The unique simulation system called A-Life from the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy is getting on a new level with A-Life 2.0. With different behavior of characters and mutants, the Zone changes constantly. Every playthrough will be unique with lots of things happening every moment, even if the player doesn’t witness them directly.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is coming to PC and Xbox Series X|S as a console launch exclusive on September 5, 2024, available through Xbox Game Pass on day one.