Russian Hackers Are Trying to Ruin Stalker 2 for Everyone

A group of Russian hackers has managed to steal Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl(Opens in a new window) assets from Ukrainian developer GSC Game World and is now threatening to leak the data publicly.

GSC confirmed the hack had occurred in a tweet(Opens in a new window), explaining that one of its employee’s accounts for a “collective work-with-images application” was compromised. The hack has been claimed by a community from a Russian social network, which is now threatening to leak the data, or attempt to use it for blackmail and intimidation. It’s unclear exactly how much data was stolen.

Tweet(Opens in a new window)

GSC is located in Kyiv, and points out the company has been targeted by cyberattacks ever since Russia invaded Ukraine back in February, 2022. “We have faced blackmail, acts of aggression, hacks, attempts to hurt players and fans, and efforts to damage the development process or the repoutation of our company,” explains the tweet.

The reason for announcing this hack occurred is not to ask for help, but rather to request everyone “refrain from watching or distributing information” about Stalker 2 if the data does end up being leaked.

Stalker 2 has had a long and difficult development process dating back to 2010, and at one point was shut down completely, but it seems like nothing is going to stop GSC from releasing the game now. And when the game does eventually become available to play, it’s unlikely a lot of Russian gamers will be able to play it even if they do get hold of a copy.

Such are the restrictions on trade with Russia, obtaining PC components good enough to run the game will prove very difficult. Most of the major component suppliers, including Intel and Nvidia, have puled out of the country and I doubt the game will even boot using the slow Chinese x86 CPU Russia seems to be relying on now.