GSC Game World's CEO Ievgen Grygorovych says he expected "much less success" from Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl after it launched with as many bugs as it did.
Stalker 2 is the long-awaited sequel to the post-apocalyptic classic, and some rough edges simply come with the territory. There's also the unfortunate fact that GSC Game World - and by extension, much of its staff - has been stuck in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine for much of the game's production, which obviously contributed to how often the shooter was delayed and how many bugs it launched with.
Creative director Maria Grygorovych still struggles to make excuses to prospective buyers in an interview with IGN, though. "We can't tell our players that every day, half of our team don't have electricity at all week after week," she says. "And some of our people can't sleep at night, half of our people, because of drones, because of missiles. And it happens every day. And how can people even survive when they can't sleep? Can't work because of electricity."
CEO Ievgen Grygorovych says the team were aware of the game's buggy state, but since GSC Game World is still an independent company, they didn't have the bandwidth or financial leeway to delay the game again. Still, Stalker 2 managed to sell more than a million copies in its first week, despite coming to Game Pass on day one, and currently has an 84% positive rating on Steam.
"I expected to have much less success than we had from the audience," the CEO admits. "We were afraid of that… we know that the game released in a state that we would like to make it better. And you release the game, there is always some bugs. We knew maybe half of them. We know that we would like to have more time, but it's our limitation."
GSC Game World has already deployed one major patch into the Zone that targeted around 650 bugs, crashes, and quest blockers. But the studio CEO says the team still wants to keep improving the game until those user reviews hit higher peaks: "For a creative person, we want to get an achievement, like we did a game that 90% of people loved, not 85, not 83, not 86. We want 90."
Be sure to check out our Stalker 2 review to find out what makes the punishing shooter so damn rewarding.
