Stalker 2 has finally gone gold after a 14-year saga where it was announced, canceled, reannounced, and delayed 5 times amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Nov. 8, 2024



November 20 can’t come soon enough

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After perhaps the most harrowing game development saga of all time,Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobylhas finally gone gold ahead of its release on November 20.

Developer GSC Game World announced the news via social media today, with a brief trailer featuring a few clips from the FPS culminating in the message “G.O.N.E. G.O.L.D.” The term “gone gold” dates back to the days when physical media was supreme, and essentially means that the game’s code is final and ready for launch. No doubt there’ll be a day one patch in the works for Stalker 2, but this announcement means the game is officially ready to be released.

Given the circumstances around Stalker 2’s numerous delays, there are few fans begrudging the time it’s taken to bring this game to market given that the devs had to survive literal war to get here. Soon we’ll finally get to see what all that work has been building up to.

After playing three hours of Stalker 2 and dying in every way imaginable, I can’t wait to recommend this post-apocalyptic shooter to (almost) every Fallout fan I know.

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