Stalker 2 ‘paid for itself’ thanks to Xbox Game Pass deal

Back when Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl was first announced, it was revealed as an Xbox console exclusive, as well as a day-one game for Xbox Game Pass. How much does a deal like that cost? Well it turns out it was enough to more than cover the development costs for the entire game.

In a recent interview with YouTube channel OLDboi, GSC Game World founder, Sergiy Grygorovych, spoke a little about their deal with Xbox for Stalker 2, saying that the timed exclusivity deal meant that the game “paid for itself before the first day”.

The deal was hashed out pretty quickly too, with the founder saying that it only took Microsoft around a week to send over the documents to sign. The extra money from the Xbox deal came at a good time too, as GSC Game World had to move its studio operations out of Ukraine in the middle of development due to Russia's invasion of the country.

Stalker 2 eventually launched in late 2024 after a couple of delays, but the day-one version of the game was not great. The game still sold millions of copies during its first few months on the market, but certain in-game systems were broken and there were various bugs and performance issues. Most of that was ironed out by late 2025, when the game's timed exclusivity window ran out and the game finally came to PS5.

Stalker 2 is in a much better state now than at launch. This year is a good time for those who skipped it to pick it up, as there is a major expansion coming later this year.

KitGuru Says: Have you played Stalker 2 since launch? Are you planning on jumping back in for the new expansion later this year? 

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