Hear that? That’s the sound of thousands of shocked and appalled gamers around the world spitting out their vodka simultaneously. Ukrainian Blogger/Marketer Sergey Galyonkin, best known for spilling the beans on STALKER 2‘s unfortunate cancellation, chimed in once more today, claiming that Bethesda now have the rights to publish a STALKER game. These rights do not extend to the extended universe, as GSC have retained the rights to the brand, but if this rumor is true Bethesda would be able to develop and release a STALKER game built on their own engine.
The STALKER series, previously developed in the Ukraine by GSC Game World, has typically been published overseas by THQ. Considering the financial difficulties they’ve been going through of late, it wouldn’t be surprising if the license had slipped out of their grasp. GSC fell apart a few months back due to troubles of their own, leading to the founding of spin-off studio Vostok Games by some of its former members. Vostok is currently hard at work on Survarium, an MMOFPS heavily influenced by STALKER.
What’s Bethesda have to say about all of this? So far, “no comment,” which isn’t exactly an outright denial of the rumors. It will be interesting to see what sort of STALKER game they’ll make, if they turn out to be true. In any case, I’m sure mods will fix it.
UPDATE: Doubt seems to be growing over the rumor’s truthfulness. As tweeted by ComputerAndVideoGames’ Rob Crossley:
‘In any case, I’m sure mods will fix it.’ And that’s why Bethesda is a shit developer, leaving everything in the hands of modders, not even caring to give us an interesting story in any of their games.
That summarises Bethesda perfectly. Great worldbuilding…rubbish storylines. Great concepts…poor implementation.
Hey! Don’t dis Morrowind man. That game actually had a good storyline, the only game from Bethesda with a well written story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZUynhkal1I
That’s surprisingly upsetting. STALKER 2 was in limbo, and now it’s going to hell with good reason – if it is now in the clumsy hands of Bethesda.
STALKER, now on Gamebryo!
I’m curious along with considering what you’re covering the following.