Stalker 2 gets another delay, this time to November so devs can sort out its technical issues

GSC Game World has announced Stalker 2's delay from September 5 to November 20, to give its development team time to fix bugs.

Today, July 25, the Stalker 2 studio announced that its upcoming first-person shooter had been subjected to a two-month delay, pushing it out of releasing in just a matter of weeks on September 5. Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl will now launch later this year on November 20 instead.

The shooter's delay is, quite simply, down to bugs. "We know you might be tired of waiting, and we truly appreciate your patience," Yevhen Grygorovych, game director at GSC Game World, says in a statement. "These additional two months will give us the chance to fix more 'unexpected anomalies,'" Grygorovych continues, adding that said "anomalies" are simply bugs.

However, there's good news today for patient Stalker 2 fans. On August 12, a deep-dive into Heart of Chornobyl will debut in collaboration with Xbox, featuring in-depth interviews with GSC Game World developers, new gameplay including fresh locations and cutscenes, and even a full gameplay walkthrough of one of Stalker 2's main quests.

This is, of course, far from the first time Stalker 2 has been delayed. It was originally set to launch in late 2022, but development was put on hold due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where GSC Game World is headquartered. Then, after being set to release in early 2024, Stalker 2 was again delayed to September 5, 2024.

Right now, though, we'll have to keep on waiting just a few months more for Stalker 2 to finally be here. For our take on what we made of GSC Game World's hotly-anticipated sequel when we played it for ourselves, head over to our Stalker 2 preview to see why it's shaping up to be the FPS we always knew it could be.

Take a look over our upcoming Xbox Series X games guide for a look ahead at Xbox's releases for the rest of the year.