Despite the announcement of a possible launch in 2023, Microsoft is issuing pre-order refunds.
The STALKER saga, among fans of survival games, is among the most popular and respected. Due to the war between Ukraine and Russia, and other problems, the release of the game has been repeatedly postponed. Although GSC Game World has announced a release date of 2023, Microsoft has made a tough decision regarding pre-orders.
We woke up today to the strong news that Microsoft will be refunding STALKER 2’ pre-orders. It’s a decision that is tied to ensuring the financial security of gamers, due to the uncertainty of the release date.
A game that was “dead” before its release date
Although fans of the survival horror genre have STALKER as one of its greatest exponents, STALKER 2 has sincerely disappointed them. In addition to a series of wrong decisions by GSC Game World, the war between Ukraine and Russia has affected the game’s release. It has even been confirmed that some of the development team staff have joined volunteering efforts in Ukraine or the country’s armed forces.
This has caused the STALKER 2 team to not only postpone the release to 2023 but also to close other projects such as the inclusion of NFTs in the game due to users’ mistrust. The constant delay of the release date has made Microsoft take action for the sake of the financial security of its users.
A tough decision on Microsoft’s part
According to the Polish portal XGP, Microsoft has taken the decision to refund STALKER 2 pre-orders. The company explains through a message on the Xbox Store that the reason for this decision is because the game was postponed to an “unconfirmed future date”. We can even see through one of these store notifications, the clear message from the Xbox team.
The message translated from Polish to English from the Xbox Store comments reads: “Thank you for pre-ordering the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl. The availability date for this title has been changed to an unconfirmed date in the future. Due to this change, we have canceled your pre-order and refunded your payment, Watch Xbox.com for information on the future release date of this title.”
This decision, in order to ensure the financial security of gamers, is likely to affect the release of the game. Despite this decision, GSC Game World’s development team has not commented on the decision. Undoubtedly, it is an unfortunate situation for the Ukrainian development team.
Let’s hope that the team will meet this new proposed release date of 2023. However, it is possible that, as long as the war between the two nations continues, we may not see the release of STALKER 2.
