On the morning of March 12, STALKER developer GSC Game World took to Twitter to upload a statement (opens in new tab) regarding the company's security breach, in which GSC blamed "the Russian social network community" for the upcoming STALKER 2" leaks and warns of possible spoilers, as reported by GameRant (opens in new tab), which was posted by the account Вестник "Того Самого Сталкера" (opens in new tab) on the Russian social media platform VK (auto translation: herald of the "same STALKER"), which appears to be a response to a post from the

GSC states that an employee's "account on a collaborative application with images was hacked," alluding to previous cyberattacks on the company related to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, where GSC is based. We will continue to do everything possible to assist Ukraine and will not change under any circumstances in the future."

The developer further cautions fans about the STALKER 2 leak and asks them not to spread such information: "In the event of a leak, please do not view or distribute any information regarding STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl outdated, ongoing material. It may diminish the impression of the final idea we have put into the game."

The VK account in question initially looked like the kind of fan community one would find on any social media platform. It has 11,000 followers and, ironically, its rules prohibit not only "illegal content" but also "politics and political nuances." The development materials for "STALKER 2" obtained through the hack fall into the former category, and the account holder's request to GSC is, well, quite political. Here, however, the context is 21st century European land warfare. There is no need to "spoil the game for political reasons."

It is almost certain that GSC Gameworld will not budge on these points, and in response to the statement on Twitter, the Herald released more concept art obtained through the hack; GSC mentions a "work-with-images" application, and the account has only released images so far, it does not appear to have more substantive material, such as development documents, videos, or ongoing builds, but it seems unlikely that we will have to wait long to see how extensive the hack was.

Last August, a Russian streamer and STALKER fan leaked footage of an unreleased console version of the original STALKER (opens in new tab), citing the same pro-Russian motives as today's leak. For more on how the war between Russia and Ukraine is affecting the gaming industry, PCG Associate Editor Joshua Wolens recently took a look behind the Western scrutiny of Atomic Heart developer Mundfish (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab), the developer of Atomic Heart.