Again, this is Russia. The development and release of ‘Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl (hereafter referred to as Stalker 2)’, which had been delayed indefinitely due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, met another ambush while announcing its release this year. The materials under development were hacked by Russian hackers.
It is not yesterday or today that game companies are hacked. In the case of Capcom, in November 2020, it was hacked by a hacker organization called Ragnar_Locker Team and about 1 tera of data was leaked. has happened
However, the hacking of ‘Stalker 2’ this time is a bit different from the previous cases. Above all, hackers claim to be fans of ‘Stalker 2’, drawing attention. In general, most of them threaten to give money under the guise of data leakage, but the hackers who hacked ‘Stalker 2’ did not. Instead, what they requested was a promise of ‘Russian localization service’.
They revealed that they hacked dozens of gigabytes of data, including the story of ‘Stalker 2’, cutscene descriptions, concept art, and global maps, and are demanding three things from the developer, GSC Game World. The first is a reconsideration of our attitude toward Belarusian and Russian players and an apology for our inappropriate attitude. Second, they asked for the NF Star profile to be banned for no reason on the official Discord, and finally, they are demanding that the ‘Russian localization’ be reversed, saying that many fans in Russia are waiting.
At the same time, some of the materials under development were released to prove the hacking. Regarding this, they said, “Accepting our request by the 15th, the company policy will be changed, and we expect the Russian localization to return later, even if it is not on the day of release.” “Not leaking data shows our kindness to you,” he said. “Please don’t let the world of stalkers die because of politics.”
On the other hand, ‘Stalker 2’ announced its release in 2023 on PC and Xbox while releasing an official trailer on December 30 last year. At that time, the Russian offensive slowed down, and development resumed. However, as Russia’s recent offensive has intensified again, it is expected that the development schedule will also be disrupted.
