Stalker 2 studio outlines plans to smooth the game’s ‘rough edges’

GSC Game World has acknowledged Stalker 2‘s “rough edges” and pledged to make improvements to the newly released title.

Following a lengthy and highly challenging development cycle, which included the studio partially relocating from Kiev to the Czech Republic following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the post-apocalyptic shooter launched today for Xbox Series X/S, PC and Game Pass.

While reserving praise for the game’s setting and side stories, VGC’s Stalker 2 review said the game suffered from “constant performance issues” and “an uncountable number of bugs”.

In a message published on X today, GSC Game World said it’s “incredibly proud” of its “love letter to Ukraine”, before stating that its work on the game is far from complete.

“We understand that in such a game, there may still be rough edges: we literally haven’t released anything of this scale before,” it said. “We’re absolutely committed to being here, monitoring your feedback, and quickly fixing any issues that need our attention.

“In the first days after release, we’ll be working with hotfixes, rolling them out as precisely as possible, but as frequently as we can. Then, we’ll switch to larger updates that include constant improvements. There will also be free in-game content – we’ll share its roadmap later in December.

“We have big plans for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe,” it continued. “In a way, today is both a return and the beginning of a grand new journey. We’re blessed to have you before, we’re blessed to have you now. The Zone belongs to you. Have fun.”

A message from the GSC Game World Team.

Before you step into the Zone, we’d like to take a moment to share something from the heart. pic.twitter.com/wuLRAkq7Ba

— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) November 20, 2024

At the time of publishing, Stalker 2 has scores of 74 (PC) and 81 (Xbox Series X/S) on review aggregation site Metacritic.

The game has got off to a strong start on Steam, reaching a peak of over 113,000 players.