And we saw that coming. Even though the STALKER 2 team was reassuring us that STALKER 2 would not be cancelled, we knew that wasn’t the truth. So, PC gamers, say goodbye to STALKER 2 and hello to Survarium. Survarium is what STALKER 2 was meant to be and can be considered as the spiritual successor to the first STALKER. The game is developed by Vostok Games, as GSC GameWorld has closed its doors and is no more. Oh, and this is no more a Single Player game but a free-to-play MMOFPS.
As the press release reads, Vostok Games appeared in March 2012 in Kiev. Ten years earlier, when at GSC Game World they started developing the renowned S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series and continued working on it until December 2011 when the studio was unexpectedly shut down and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 project – frozen. They did not reach agreement with the rights owner regarding the use of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand, that’s why they made the decision to move forward as an independent studio with a new project. That day became the starting point for Vostok Games.
Vostok Games is a new studio founded by veterans of Ukrainian game industry with multi-year experience of developing and releasing commercially successful projects. In March 2012 we reached agreement with Vostok Ventures to back up the financing of their new game – free2play MMOFPS Survarium (working title).
Their vision is to create games to broaden the limits of human experience, raising topical questions of our time. Although Survarium will be a free-to-play MMOFPS, it will also have the option of player vs the game world as in Stalker. Furthermore, the entire team that was working on STALKER 2 is now working on it and Vostok Games will release a developer diary for it tonight. And in case you are wondering, no. This has nothing to do with funds. The team simply couldn’t secure the IP rights to continue with the Stalker franchise.
Survarium is a free2play MMOFPS game set in the near future. The game focuses on a mass-scale ecological catastrophe on Earth, the reasons behind vaguely known. Impassable woods advance onto cities from every side, maddened animals and birds attack industrial complexes, military structures, warehouses and power plants. Strange plants and mushrooms grow through concrete and steel. Scientists all over the world haplessly try to cope with the anomaly sprawling across the Earth with terrifying speed. Countries collapse, anarchy spreads throughout the world. Now force dictates who to survive. The game is developed with a new proprietary Vostok Engine technology and is planned for release on PC at the end of 2013.
It sucks but it’s true. STALKER is no more. So say hello to Survarium. Oh, and as a bonus, here is an old Hitler video for the cancellation of STALKER 2. Enjoy!
UPDATE:
Here is the developer diary from Vostok Games
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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