'Stalker 2' studio pauses development due to Russian invasion of Ukraine

The Stalker series has always delighted in exploring the dark and decrepit locales of Eastern Europe, as well as showing the grit and determination of hunters struggling to survive. Unfortunately, the highly-anticipated Stalker 2 has been disrupted by the very real conflict in Ukraine, and now studio GSC Game World has spoken out about it.

The developer — which is based in Kyiv — announced in a video that development has been paused due to Russia sending "rockets, tanks, and soldiers" to its home country. The update also notes that the team had edited another video last week that showed off GSC Game World’s motion capture studio, and how the developers were capturing animations for the game. "Last week was ages ago," one of the captions on the video says.

Coming together — GSC Game World is one of several studios affected by Russia's wholesale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's deputy prime minister recently posted an open letter that called for all major gaming platforms and companies to cease support for Russia and Belarus, particularly Xbox and PlayStation.

Several gaming companies have announced plans to donate money to aid organizations that are working in Ukraine, such as 11 Bit, GOG, and CD Projekt Red. Other moves have proven to be a bit more symbolic in nature, such as EA's decision to remove Russian teams from FIFA and NHL games.