Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World has confirmed that a fire recently broke out in its Prague office.
As reported by Vortex, the fire started on September 7 and prompted an evacuation from the office. While there were no injuries, the fire reportedly caused 1.5million Czech crowns (£52,639) in damages.
GSC Game World has since confirmed the report. Speaking through Discord, a GSC Game World employee going by Mol1t outlined the situation to fans.
“It is true,” they shared. “Fortunately, none of the employees or office staff were injured in the accident. A fire broke out in our office in Prague on Thursday. Even though the fire was successfully put out, one of the office floors now requires a full restoration. Further details of the accident are still being investigated. We express our deepest appreciation for your questions and the words of support we have been receiving.”
This is the latest in a string of major setbacks for GSC Game World. The studio had to move the development of Stalker 2 to Prague when its Kyiv office was caught up in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and earlier in the year a test built of the game was leaked by Russian hackers.
However, Mol1t remains optimistic. “No anomaly, not even a ‘Burner’, will make us stop in our pursuit of our final goal,” they shared. “We’ve dealt with worse than that before. This is fine.”
Though Stalker 2‘s release date has been pushed back to 2024, NME recently got to play a preview build of GSC Game World’s upcoming title.
“Stalker 2 has all of the grit, atmosphere and brutality that Stalker fans expect,” reads our preview. “While the English voice acting leaves a lot to be desired and the build we play still struggles with bugs, we’re optimistic that the game – now delayed to 2024 – will get more than Geiger counters buzzing at launch.”
Stalker 2 is now expected to launch in the first quarter of 2024, though an exact release date is yet to be announced.
In other gaming news, Dark And Darker has been hit with a “concerted” DDoS attack.