Stalker 2 "frozen", developers start new studio
Vostok Games announces free-to-play MMO Survarium.
Stalker 2 is all but dead and buried, judging by a rush of activity surrounding beleaguered developer GSC.
What's left of the Ukranian studio today Tweeted: "Despite no official continuation of Stalker 2. it looks like the ideas and spirit will live on in the team's new game - Survarium."
It turns out that Survarium is a free-to-play MMO being developed at start-up Vostok Games, founded by key GSC staff.
Its home page explains that it was found last month following a lack of forward momentum on Stalker 2.
"Our company appeared in March 2012 in Kiev. Ten years earlier, when at GSC Game World we started developing the renowned S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series and continued working on it until December 2011 when the studio was unexpectedly shut down and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 project - frozen," it reads.
"We did not reach agreement with the rights owner regarding the use of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand, that's why we made the decision to move forward as an independent studio with a new project. That day became our starting point for Vostok Games."
The game's website states that it's set in the near future following a "mass scale ecological catastrophe".
"Impassable woods advance onto cities from every side, maddened animals and birds attack industrial complexes, military structures, warehouses and power plants. Strange plants and mushrooms grow through concrete and steel," reads the announcement blurb.
"Scientists all over the world haplessly try to cope with the anomaly sprawling across the Earth with terrifying speed. Countries collapse, anarchy spreads throughout the world. Now force dictates who to survive."
It's being developed on the studio's new Vostok Engine and is due out on PC towards the end of 2013.
Stalker 2's fate still seems a little murky - as recently as a few weeks ago GSC was Tweeting about new progress on the title, despite reports that its CEO had decided to close the company.
We've reached out to Vostok for additional details on the new project as well as word on Stalker 2's demise - look out for more soon.