Stalker 2 devs had to “rebuild the game again” after a massive fire destroyed the studio 

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World has been dealt a dire hand as of late. After years of botched pre-production, the developer’s plans for their open-world survival game were ruined by a massive invasion of Ukraine by Russia. 

While the team’s struggles leaving their homeland are well known, the studio had even more issues once they reached safety. After moving around 200 developers from Ukraine to Prague, the studio suffered a massive fire that destroyed tonnes of work. 

The Stalker 2 office fire 

Speaking to GameSpot,  GSC Game World CEO Ievgen Grygorovych explained that the team suffered another massive setback in late 2023. A year away from release, a huge fire wiped out an entire floor of the studio.

The fire saw not only the destruction of the studio’s server, but also work computers that the team used to actually make the survival game. Despite the setback, the studio saw the fire as an opportunity to bring the team even closer together. 

“It was one more challenge to rebuild the game again,” lead community manager Yevhen Bazarov told the outlet. “One more thing we weren’t expecting.”

“It actually made us stronger because we got to experience what can happen, how it may look—what we have to do to not let it happen again,” Grygorovych explained.

Nevertheless, some developers were obviously upset at the massive loss of work. While the setback wasn’t too bad, work was “wasted”, and it was yet another blow to the studio after being forced to escape their homeland. 

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl eventually released on Xbox and PC at the end of 2024. While the game does have some major issues still, GSC has dedicated itself to “enhancing the single player experience” with years of updates and new content. 

At the time of writing, the Stalker 2 developers are preparing their roadmap for fans which should detail new updates, content additions and plans for more accessible mod tools for the game.