Posted on March 13, 2023 at 8:17 AM

Russian hackers threaten to leak more STALKER 2 details if demands are not met

A recent social media post has revealed that Russian hackers are behind the leak of game material related to STALKER 2 by the GSC Game World. The details pertaining to this upcoming game are crucial as it is one of most anticipated game releases of 2023.

Ukrainian game studio works on STALKER 2 development amid challenges

STALKER 2 is one of the most anticipated games that will be released this year. The game has garnered much interest from fans that enjoy first-person shooter games, which points to early success. Nevertheless, the team behind this game is already facing challenges, with the most recent one being the challenge posed by threat actors.

The studio behind this game is currently sitting in a highly demanding situation than was previously expected. STALKER 2 has been under development for more than a decade, with the studio facing an imminent challenge of financial constraints. The finances needed to develop this game were inadequate during the first years of development.

In 2018, the studio unannounced the game, but it is still facing serious issues that could affect the game’s entrance into the market. The Ukraine-based studio faced a notable challenge after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The situation worsened early last year because of the effects caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Nevertheless, despite these apparent challenges, the team behind STALKER 2 has shown commitment and it is still progressing with the game’s development. Some online reports have also demonstrated how some developers were in the final development stage for this game amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

There are also reports that some STALKER 2 developers were involved in an effort to fight off the Russian forces, which affected the availability of the team that could help this game achieve success. The game is now set for release in 2023, but there are new challenges that GSC Game World has to face for the successful release of STALKER 2.

Russian hackers leak STALKER 2 game material

The Ukraine-based studio is currently facing a fresh threat posed by Russian hackers. A Russian threat actor group known as “Vestnik TSS” recently shared a social media post as proof that they had breached the systems of the STALKER 2 game developer. The post was published on a Russian social media platform known as VK.

In the social media post, the Russian hackers shared a list of demands that the STALKER 2 developers need to meet. The social media post included several images and artwork that is believed to belong to the yet-to-be-released game.

The Russian hacker group has threatened that they will release more details about this game. They have said that “tens of gigabytes” of game material will be released to the public if their demands are not met.

The hackers have demanded that GSC Game World becomes more friendly towards the players based in Russia and Belarus. They also want the studio to apologize to the players from the two countries for the “unworthy attitude” that the game studio had given them.

The demands by these hackers also mention the need to bring back RU-localization to this game. They also want the “NF Star” profile to be unbanned from the Discord channel of this game studio.

According to this social media post, the group expects that GSC will meet all the outlined demands by March 15. If the game studio fails to meet these demands, the hackers have threatened to release all the materials they have accessed pertaining to the game. The material in question comprised the concept art, global maps, full story and cut scenes.

It is still uncertain if the level of threat posed by these hackers is severe enough for the game studio to be compelled to meet the demands. Nevertheless, the ultimatum comes a few months after GSC unveiled a detailed STALKER 2 trailer, with fans expressing their excitement over the upcoming release of this game.

This threat adds to the similar incidences reported in the past where hackers target game studios and threaten to release details of unreleased titles. Some of the most popular titles such as GTA 6 and Activision’s 2023 Call of Duty have been targeted by these hackers.

STALKER 2 by GSC is being targeted because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It remains unclear whether GSC will comply with the demands made by these hackers or circumvent the situation through a possible shadow-release of this game.