STALKER 2 has officially gone gold, see you stalkers in the Zone on November 20

STALKER 2 has officially gone gold, with developer GSC Game World proudly announcing the news on X. The term 'gone gold' is more old school from the 90s and 2000s where the developer finishes the master copy of the game, and it gets sent off for the mass production of physical discs.

It has been over 17 years since the release of the original STALKER back in 2007, with the last entry in the franchise being STALKER: Call of Pripyat in 2009. GSC Game World's first proper attempt at developing STALKER 2 started immediately, with the game announced in August 2010 for a tentative release in 2012... well, 12 years later, STALKER 2 has gone gold.

The Ukranian developer was dissolved in December 2011, which saw STALKER 2 cancelled. However, Evgeniy Grygorovych, the brother of GSC Game World's original founder Sergiy Grygorovych, resurrected the studio from the dead in late 2014. STALKER 2 was announced in May 2018, with a release window of 2021... and 3 years later, STALKER 2 has gone gold.

The invasion of Russia into Ukraine forced the developer to stop working on STALKER 2 for a while, with the developer going radio silent for a while, but then a playable demo of STALKER 2 appeared at Gamescom 2023. GSC Game World used the STALKER 2 demo at Gamescom to get feedback on the game, and make improvements.

STALKER 2 officially launches on November 20, 2024.