S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was only announced so the devs could find a publisher - Sensationalist Headlines

STALKER 2 might be set for a release in 2021, but it’s yet to actually secure a publisher. According to Epic Games’s director of publishing Sergey Galyonkin (who you may also know as the founder of SteamSpy), the game is currently in the design doc phase, and developers GSC GameWorld are hoping to secure a publisher at E3. [...]Sergiy Grygorovych revealed the project’s existence two weeks ago on Facebook, suggesting it would be released in three year’s time. Galyonkin, however, suggests that that date could be wishful thinking, as the game doesn’t actually have a publisher at this point. Appearing on episode 222 of the How to Make Games podcast, Galyonkin revealed that GSC would use the hype generated by the game's announcement to strike a publishing deal at E3, which begins next month (Galyonkin's insight stems from the fact that STALKER 2 is likely to be being made in Epic's Unreal Engine). Galyonkin also stated that some of the team working on STALKER 2 did work on the original game, but that it's an entirely separate team from the one that was worked on Cossacks 3, GSC's eastern-european RTS. https://www.pcgamesn.com/stalker-2/stalker-2-publisher

Building a game only based on hype sounds absolutely awful.

Forgive me if I am getting a little skeptical about STALKER 2.

Isn't this what they did with the original STALKER, only without the hype factor? How much you guys wanna bet THQ Nordic is gonna be all over that?

It's a powerful tactic if you can combine it with a prototype and a solid plan. You have the basis for what you need, and you know there's a need for it in the market. Could definitely attract a publisher with that. Design doc phase, though..

Well, a significant amount of crowdfundind projects work like this. But I am extremely cautious about those.

This is some classic Russian Jank game development right here, and here I thought Tarkov would've kept me satisfied.

Why not just kickstart it?

My enthusiasm for this is absolutely quenched

I'm still hopeful because they've announced it, they know that its "STALKER 2" and won't try to make into some epic battle royale like some of us thought they were with that VK bullshit that spread around, and they've doen it before. however this could just be me wanting STALKER 2 badly, very badly indeed

I'm surprised people didn't see this coming. It was pretty obvious why they'd announce it so far in advance.

Oh, oh man that's real fucking low. You'd think they'd have something to show behind closed doors, not just a fucking design doc.

Galyonkin revealed that GSC would use the hype generated by the game's announcement to strike a publishing deal at E3, which begins next month Well, sounds like a genius plan to me! What could go wrong?

Come on BAMCO, get in there! STALKER 2 will be the DARK SOULS of shooters!!

Like Cossacks 3 with guns

I would not trust GSC with Kickstarter money, and if you would you deserve to lose any money you'd give them, because that is exactly what would happen.

I'm no scientist, but I would imagine self-publishing would be very expensive even with people backing your product, more so than making a deal with a publisher. You would also have to take into consideration the target audience which in STALKER's case, despite its active modding scene, is very small. I doubt they would be able to attract new backers without drastically changing the way STALKER plays, which in turn would completely turn their current playerbase against them. Kind of a lose-lose scenario either way.

I'd rather the CEO of GSC use a publisher's money to buy another Ferrari than the money of thousands of STALKER fans.

the game is currently in the design doc phase This means that there's basically no game, yet. Jeez.

called it in the last thread lmao

Most of games start with idea and documentation and then look for publisher, Its nothing weird, for games that are not AAA/license series. Difference is that for most of time we get the news about creating game AFTER that point. As for Kickstarter, SG said in previous interview that money to create game is not a problem. Dont mix development with publishing. There is no point for GSC to invest money in publishing that its really tough and hard thing, where you can just make contract with company that have experience with that and all resources to release game(advertising, licensing, support, contracts with selling platforms etc)

Announcing games early to get interest, recruit staff or find a publisher seems to be something that happens on a somewhat regular basis. That in itself, while a bit concerning, doesn't sound too bad to me However, what this article and other people seem to be missing is that he supposedly announced it without consulting the team. https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/8my5y6/stalker_2_development_in_the_design_document/dzr9mla/

I mean, with a "2021' release date its pretty obvious that very little of this game actually exists yet. Not very surprising news.

I don't understand why there is much hype, if any, about stalker 2 when most of the original devs at gsc left or were kicked out by sergi. Even if it were to come to fruition, it would be the equivalent of half life 3 made by Activision in terms of talent behind the product.

The other STALKER games were a notorious revolving door of developers.

I don't know too much about the series/developer, what's the reason for not trusting them? I know the games were in development for quite a few years but i'm not sure if there's something other than that that's a problem.