The development team at GSC Game World has suffered from yet another major issue while trying to complete their long-awaited post-apocalypse FPS sequel S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The building that includes the team's offices in Prague, Czech Republic was heavily damaged by a fire this week.
According to Vortex (via PC Gamer), the fire severely damaged one of the three floors of the building that GSC Game World was occupying. The team moved into the building after leaving their home country of Ukraine following the Russian invasion in 2022.
The damage to the floor was confirmed by GSC 's business development manager Olga Ryžko, who told Vortex:
Fortunately, none of the staff or office workers were injured, which is a great relief . . . Although the fire was extinguished, one of the floors of the office now requires complete reconstruction. Further details of the accident are still being investigated.
PC Gamer reports that another member of the development team, "Mol1t", posted a message about the fire on the game's official Discord channel:
We express our deepest appreciation for your questions and the words of support we have been receiving. No anomaly, not even a "Burner", will make us stop in our pursuit of our final goal. We've dealt with worse than that before. This is fine.
This apparent setback comes just a few weeks after GSC Game World finally let the public play a demo of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 at Microsoft's Xbox booth during Gamescom 2023 in Cologne, Germany. The developer also announced a new release date time frame for the first quarter of 2024. The game will be launched for the PC and will be a timed console exclusive for the Xbox Series S and X.
We are certainly glad no one was hurt during this incident, which is the most important thing. Hopefully, this fire will not cause a further delay in the game's release, but even if it does, launching a game is not nearly as important as keeping people safe.
