We sometimes tend to forget that Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer, GSC Game World is creating a game while its country is being invaded. The studio put out one of the most heart-wrenching dev-diaries amidst all of this, showing how employees had to leave their homes and work out of makeshift shelters. Some of them even joined up with the Ukrainian armed forces to fight. So, it's unlikely that anyone would hold a grudge if the game were to be delayed.

A couple of days ago, we reported that those who had pre-ordered the game started receiving notifications from Xbox about their pre-orders being cancelled, and that they will be refunded. The reason for this was boiled down to the game getting delayed to an "unconfirmed date in the future."

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However, it seems that this is not the case, as GSC Game World said in a statement to PC Gamer. "We had to postpone the game to 2023 with no exact release date for now," wrote a GSC spokesperson. "We made the announcement at E3 Microsoft Extended show, alongside the Dev Diary and intro cutscene. Microsoft refunds preorders for the games with no exact release date. When we announce the exact release date later on, the preorders will go live again for Xbox. Pre-orders on PC (Steam, EGS, GOG) are not affected by this."

So, it seems that GSC is pretty certain of launching the game some time in 2023. However, the spokesperson mentioned that since Stalker 2 doesn't have a hard launch date against it, Microsoft policy dictates that refunds be issued for it – it does so with every game without a fixed launch date.

Back in early August, the rumoured console port of Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl had been leaked by a Russian steamer called 'Nevazhno, Kto'. Their reason for doing so was detailed in a five-page document that claimed that GSC was discriminating against its own fans in Russia. The streamer said the developer did so by raising money to support Ukrainian troops – "The purchase of weapons and military equipment is not a charity event."

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