S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 - Cancelled, GSC Closed?

It seems GSC Gameworld has closed and, by extension, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is cancelled. There are a variety of sources for this but Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a clear timeline of the story unfolding. It all started with Ukrainian news site UkraNews reporting the closure and after some confusion with tweets, GSC's social media manager announced he is looking for a job. 1C Ukraine's (and former journalist) Sergey Galenkin then blogged about it, which seems solid confirmation.
The reasons are unclear but a failed console publishing deal seems to be at the centre.
Thanks to Frozen Fireball for the tip.
More information.

Worst news since Troika closing, and Looking Glass before it. Seriously shitty. God dammit. I wish Valve or CDProjekt would hire them all, get Stalker IP and continued making kick ass PC only immersive simshooters.

Originally Posted by Paul
Worst news since Troika closing, and Looking Glass before it. Seriously shitty. God dammit. I wish Valve or CDProjekt would hire them all, get Stalker IP and continued making kick ass PC only immersive simshooters.

CD Project have their own problems, as they just lost their case against Namco Bandai.

Noooooooooooooooooooooo

Bugger

Originally Posted by Paul
Worst news since Troika closing, and Looking Glass before it. Seriously shitty. God dammit. I wish Valve or CDProjekt would hire them all, get Stalker IP and continued making kick ass PC only immersive simshooters.

Well about the PC only part of that -

Galenkin blames the cost of developing a PC only shooter for a European audience, and a failed console publishing deal, for the collapse of the developer.

Also haven't Valve and CD Projeckt's latest succesful titles been cross platform - or atleast built with cross platform use in mind? The Witcher 2 will come out on the Xbox 360 in a little while. I had always been meant to come out sooner, as the recent law suit by Namco shows, they had plans and agreements to release it on the console long before the PC version was released. It even had an interface clearly designed to be used on the Xbox 360 with full controller support.

Valve hasn't done a major PC-only release since Day of Defeat in 2003 - if you don't count source engine updates of their earlier games (ie, Day of Defeat: Source or free games like Alien Swarm.)

Either company might be able to do something good with the IP, but don't expect it to be PC exclusive.

Originally Posted by jhwisner
Well about the PC only part of that -

Except he's not from GSC, he's just a guy from 1C who's making speculations.
No one knows yet WHY GSC was closed, and there are even rumors about this being a mafia-related issue.

Also haven't Valve and CD Projeckt's latest succesful titles been cross platform - or atleast built with cross platform use in mind?

Well, who cares?
They keep putting the PC as primary platform, which is really what counts the most.

Either company might be able to do something good with the IP, but don't expect it to be PC exclusive.

STALKER 2 wasn't announced as a PC exclusive anyway.

Sigh. Another one bites the dust.

Simply. Goddamn. Horrible.
Only franchise outside of RPGs I was interested in (and one of my all time favorites). Gone.

Originally Posted by Shagnak
Noooooooooooooooooooooo

Bugger

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Sad news indeed for the fans who loved there games. I never finished the first game so forgive me if it sounds harsh.

I was hoping for more of there Heroes of Annihilated Empires strategy games but its been years since the first one.

Those games were quirky, but I'll never forget walking around in downtown Pripyat. Creepy and cool at the same time.

I have looked through Russian game blogs and found tweet from @cgstalker. They promise to make an official statement on Monday. Meantime there are also a lot of gossips that all the hype was started in fact by GSC PR department. Virus marketing, scandal advertising, intentional leak? Call it as you like but it worked.

It only "worked" if this is a marketing ploy. If they have, in fact, closed you could hardly call it a victory.

Originally Posted by Tuco

Well, who cares?
They keep putting the PC as primary platform, which is really what counts the most.


STALKER 2 wasn't announced as a PC exclusive anyway.

I was responding to the hopes for "PC only" titles from anyone who purchases their IP. I was not in any way suggesting there couldn't be PC-focused titles of high quality from those companies. The position you are trying to argue against is not one that has been made. Paul did not say PC centered, and this is what I suggested to be unlikely. I used games which are often considered to be examples of great titles with the PC version largely considered to be primary or at least not diminished - part of the reason I did this was because it should be acknowledged that the PC version of a multiplatform title can still be quite good without concessions made for the other platforms excessively intruding onto the PC version.

As to who cares - well unless you're a second login for Paul then "not you." I wasn't responding to you though was I, I was responding to Paul. I agree that primacy of the PC version, or at least the care with which it is optimized, is far more important than exclusivity. This is why I chose to use the excellent Witcher 2 as one of my examples.

Oh crap man!!!! The only FPS franchise I was interested in and now it's gone…

I did buy all of their games but I guess it wasnt enough.

Yeah this sucks.

I almost think it might be better if they had gotten a publisher to make the games on consoles too.

A tweet posted from GSC's official account:
"We will do our best to continue. However, at this moment, nothing is certain."

http://twitter.com/gscstalker

There is still hope. But I doubt they can give us a groundbreaking title if they want to keep making the game with the condition they have. Wish them best anyway. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : SoC is my most favorite FPS and I really like to see a worthy sequel for it.

That's a real shame. I really enjoyed the first game. Have the 2nd and third to play (probably in my next lifetime, at this rate).