GSC Game World founder Sergiy Grygorovych shared that Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl already recuperated its entire development cost before it was even released. Grygorovych shared this fascinating peak behind the scenes of Stalker 2's development in a new interview with YouTuber OLDBoi.
In the interview, Grygorovych says that XBOX became interested in making the game an exclusive, timed or otherwise, after seeing how well the game's trailer performed online. "They brought in all the documents for signing in about a week," Grygorovych says.
Without digging into the specifics of their contract, Grygorovych says that the amount of money XBOX gave GSC Game World for the Stalker 2 timed exclusive period more than covered the cost of the game's development. He claims, "It paid for itself before the first day."
Stalker 2 was a console exclusive on XBOX for a period of one year before being released on PlayStation 5 in November 2025.
An embed of the interview can be found below. You will probably need to make use of YouTube's auto-translate closed captions feature to understand what is being said. The relevant portion begins around the 30:38 mark in the video.
