STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl May Have Just Been Given a December 2023 Release Date

ign.com:

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl may have been given a December 1, 2023, according to distributor Plaion’s website.

First spotted by Wccftech, the official German Plaion store is the one that has a listing for STALKER 2: Chornobyl on PC with a December 1 release date, and it describes the game as a unique mix of first-person shooter, horror, and immersive sim. It also mentions it has survival mechanics for hunger, sleep, and bleeding, as well as a dynamic day and night cycle with realistic weather effects.

While this date could obviously be a placeholder, December 1 does land on a Friday (when a lot of games are released!) and other games on the store without firm dates are given a December 31 date. This particular store also has a history of leaking dates this way as Darksiders 2's Switch version had a similar thing happen.

Developer and publisher GSC World has not yet confirmed a release date, but it did confirm STALKER 2 will be playable at the Gamescom 2023, so it’s possible the game is close to being ready.

STALKER 2 was originally planned to be released in April 2022, but was then pushed back to December 2022. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GSC paused development in March and then reportedly resumed in May.

The game was seemingly delayed to the first half of 2023 during the Xbox and Bethesda’s 2022 showcase, and GSC then confirmed that the game wouldn’t be shown in the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase. However, the studio said it would share more information in the upcoming months.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is set to launch for PC and Xbox Series X|S.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He's been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.