S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's Xbox Exclusivity Cost More Than Its Budget

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was so promising that it got Xbox to make it the platform's exclusive for a price that exceeded development costs.

In a new interview with YouTuber OLDBoi, Sergiy Grygorovych, founder of GSC Game World, recalled the time of the game's release and how the post-apocalyptic FPS became Xbox's exclusive. "We took more than the cost of Stalker 2," he said via Insider Gaming. Thus, the developers recouped the costs of the game's creation even before sales started. "It paid for itself before the first day," Grygorovych said. 

The studio founder shared that Xbox showed such interest in the title due to the success of its trailer, specifically the number of views, which spurred the company to acquire the rights. The process was rather quick, and, according to Grygorovych, Xbox brought in the documents for signing in about a week.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl launched on November 20, 2024, for PC and Xbox as a timed console exclusive, with the PlayStation version following a year later in November 2025. The game was warmly received, gaining positive reviews. It features a seamless open world with 20 regions, each so expansive that, according to the developers, many of them could be a separate game.