While many were hoping for a release in the early months of the year, GSC Game World have announced that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl will release on September 5th, 2024 for both PC and Xbox Series X|S. Check out the brief new trailer for the game below.

The studio’s initial release window was of course Q1 2024, but it was never given an actual release date before, making this the first time it has been granted a specific date, of course that means it was delayed again. The studio have a message on why it was delayed, it is below.

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.

Of course the country is still involved in a war with Russia, which was always going to hamper their development efforts, so even with that, the fact they continued to make a game is amazing.