STALKER 2 developers set up new studio

Developers from the former GSC Game World studio, responsible for STALKER 2, have set up a new studio called Vostok Games confirming the game had been "frozen".

Vostok Games hoped to continue working on the STALKER franchise, especially after GSC closed its doors in December last year, but didn't win the rights to the game.

"We did not reach agreement with the rights owner regarding the use of the STALKER brand, [so] we made the decision to move forward as an independent studio with a new project."

The new website for Vostok confirms the studio was created in March this year and also confirms the complete closure of GSC.

"…[W]e started developing the renowned STALKER series [at GSC Game World], and continued work on it until December 2011 when the studio was unexpectedly shut down and the STALKER 2 project frozen.

The studio hopes to "create games that broaden the limits of human experience, raising important issues of our time. These are questions of science, ecology and man's relationship with nature, the severity and ingenuity of modern civilisation, and of course, spirituality," possibly in honour of Vostok 1, the spaceflight which saw the former USSR put the first man, Yuri Gagarin, in space.

We can expect to see Vostok's first game in 2013, a free-to-play MMOFPS set in the near future after a global ecological disaster. You can expect to see new animal and plant species that are hell bent on destroying humans.

Rusien Didenko, the project lead, said it was where they wanted to go with the STALKER franchise, "forcing mankind to fight for survival not only within the closed area of the Chernobyl zone, but also far beyond."

We look forward to seeing the game, and we'll let you know what we think when we see it.