A Ukrainian video game is shattering records since its release on November 20, despite many delays and its being a target of a Russian disinformation operation.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is the latest edition of a game series that started in 2007 with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl, developed by GSC Game World, a Ukrainian video games studio.
The game surpassed one million downloads and 117,000 concurrent players within 48 hours of its release, making it the most successful Ukrainian-developed title to date. Yet, that landmark achievement in the country’s gaming industry was bittersweet.
Former GSC Game World developer Volodymyr Yezhov, who worked on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and was known by the nickname “Fresh”, was killed in combat near Bakhmut in December 2022, while serving in the Ukrainian military.
As a result of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, part of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s development team was forced to relocate to Prague to enable the studio to finish the game. It also faced another challenge in the form of a Russian disinformation campaign.
According to 404 Media, an online publication focusing on technology and media reporting, a video with a fake Wired magazine watermark was circulated alleging that the game was being used to recruit Ukrainian soldiers for the war with Russia while also collecting private data on anyone who played the game. Ukraine has faced a raft of challenges with recruitment during the war, with those challenges increasing in recent months.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl — which, like other parts of the series, uses the Ukrainian spelling of the town devastated by a nuclear disaster in 1986 — is a fusion of the “first-person shooter” and “survival horror” genres of video game. The game transports players to a reimagined version of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.
The real Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, also known as the “30-kilometre zone”, was a restricted area that was created in the immediate aftermath of the disaster in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, in which dozens — and by some estimated thousands — of people died because of radiation-linked illnesses.
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