S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Has Been Officially Announced

GSC Game World has finally announced that it is working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The company has also said that it is building a new technology for the game and not using the CryEngine 3.0 as has been previously rumored.

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has slowly become quite a big hit on the PC gaming scene, selling no less then four million copies in its relatively short lifespan.

The games have been praised for their open ended design, the strong modding tools and the interesting story and setting. PC gamers have forgiven the initially buggy releases because of the breath of fresh air the franchise has brought in the first person shooter genre.

It is good news then that the developer of the series has decided to bring forth S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, the first proper sequel to the original game, the other two titles launched until today being regarded as some kind of stand-alone expansions.

“After the official sales of the series exceeded 4 million copies worldwide, we had no doubts left to start creating a new big game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe. This will be the next chapter of the mega-popular game players expect from us,” said Sergiy Grygorovych, chief executive officer of GSC Game World.

The developer is building a new graphics engine for the title that will target multiple platforms, signaling, maybe, the first appearance of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series on consoles. This comes after previous rumors have said the GSC was using the CryEngine 3.0 to build its new game.

The recent Call of Pripyat was meant to see a console release, but financial constraints led the developers to bring the best game they could on PC and focus on the sequel.

It seems it was the right decision, as Call of Pripyat was the most stable release in the series to date and to some fans the best game GSC ever made.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be released sometime in 2012, according the company's official site.