In early March it was reported that development on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was put on hold due to Russia's violent invasion of Ukraine. The Kyiv, Ukraine based development team of GSC Game World opted to put their safety and the safety of their families ahead of the creation of a video game.
This week, news that development has resumed on Stalker 2 came from Polish outlet GRY-Online and relayed via PC Gamer. According to this new report, a community representative for GSC Game World announced that development on the game has resumed. This announcement was made in a post made to Discord. Community representative "Mol1t" said simply that "it continues" and "the work is in progress."
Stalker 2's official Discord was briefly closed to any new communications in March after GSC Game World announced that they were pausing development. The Discord re-opened just a few days ago prior to this brief announcement being made.
As it stands, there is no indication on how much development is back, be it just a small portion or if they are fully back into the swing of things. There is also no word on how this will impact the still currently planned December 8, 2022 release date for Stalker 2. However, it is probably a safe bet that this date will be officially pushed back into at least some time in 2023.
GSC Game World has not officially relocated out of Kyiv. However, various rumors suggest that at least some of the staff have relocated to Prague, the capital city of Czechia (aka the Czech Republic).
