STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer GSC Game Worlds has issued a statement after a collective work-with-images system they were using was hacked into, with in-development content stolen in the process. The Ukrainian developer states that a Russian hacker group has claimed responsibility, and asked gamers to ignore any leaks that stem from their refusal to be blackmailed.
“This is not the first attempt to hack and leak our data,” the STALKER 2 developer writes in the statement, “including personal information. We have been enduring constant cyberattacks for more than a year now. We have faced blackmail, acts of aggression, hacks, attempts to hurt players and fans, and efforts to damage the development process or the reputation of our company.
“We are a ukrainian company, and like most Ukrainians, we have experienced many things that are much more terrifying: destroyed houses, ruined lives, and the deaths of our loved ones. Attempts to blackmail or intimidate us are completely futile.
“Our unwavering commitment to supporting our country remains unchanged – we will continue to do everything possible to support Ukraine. And this won’t change in the future under any circumstances.”
It’s worth noting that this is not on the scale of previous game studio hacks, where access to internal servers was able to see source code leaked and playable builds. What the hackers were able to gain access to was a “collective work-with-images system”, analogous to business communications platforms like Microsoft Teams or Slack. As they’ve adapted to more distributed and remote working in the past year, this kind of platform would have been integral to GSC’s continued work, allowing for quick sharing of screenshots, documents, videos and more.
This does mean that there could still be major game story spoilers and plenty of work-in-progress content leaked, but as GSC notes, this won’t represent the final quality of the game. This also shouldn’t significantly impact the path of development for the game.
GSC Game Worlds has stuck with developing STALKER 2 despite the invasion of Ukraine by Russia over a year ago. While development was halted in the early days of the war, they were able to reunite and start work again from Czechia. However, some parts of the team have been unable or unwilling to leave their homeland, with harrowing developer updates from the middle of last year showing glimpses of their lives with constant air raid sirens, working in bathrooms and corridors. Others have joined the armed forces to defend their country, some losing their lives as they do so.
Despite this adversity, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is scheduled to be released in 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X|S. The game will be coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one.
Source: GSC Game Worlds
