STALKER 2 developer cancels NFT plans after blowback

They are the makers STALKER II: The Heart of Chernobyl on Thursday evening abandoned plans to introduce NFTs to their post-apocalyptic game, shortly after posting — and quickly deleting — a lengthy defense of the revenue-generating scheme.

“Based on the feedback we received, we’ve made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related in STALKER 2,” GSC Game World tweeted at 6:16 p.m.About 90 minutes later, EST explained why it brought non-fungible tokens to its shooter/RPG.

“The interests of our fans and players are the top priority for the team,” the company added. “We’re making this game for you to enjoy — whatever the cost is. If you care, we care too.”

On Wednesday, the studio and publisher announced plans to “let the community own a piece of STALKER 2,” a sequel to the 2009 cult hit STALKER: Call of Pripyat. In addition to commoditizing in-world items for players to buy and sell among themselves, GSC Game World planned to auction an in-game NPC appearance built on the winning bidder’s likeness.

Among other community platforms, the STALKER subreddit’s response was immediate, indignant, and unified. Fans posted memes rejecting GSC’s plans in vulgar terms, ripped the studio for jumping on the NFT bandwagon before showing actual gameplay in a game due to launch in 2022, and vowed not to buy STALKER 2, which they’ve waited 13 years for.

GSC Game World replied late Thursday with an all-caps defensive rebuttal, which would quickly be retracted. “GSC Game World is an independent game development studio,” it began, “Just like all the other devs, we need two main resources: time and money.”

Image by GSC Game World via Twitter

“Yesterday, we announced the first tokens — the faces of several NPCs,” GSC Game World continued. “They aren’t even involved in the story. Some of you thought that we might go too far. That’s why we want to transparently disclose our plans for the future NFTs.”

Those plans were to include “(nick)names of the owners on some in-game desks/walls/etc, … gloves/tattoos, skins/badges for the multiplayer mode (releasing as a free update after the story campaign) and collectible cards.” The cards would be transacted on the blockchain only, with no integration in STALKER 2.

The players weren’t having it.

GSC Game World issued an apology and retract shortly after.

STALKER 2 It was initially announced for release in 2010, and it was scheduled to be released in 2012. But GSC Game World’s original incarnation dissolved in late 2011 and the game was formally canceled shortly thereafter.

GSC Game World has been reformed and re-announced STALKER 2 In 2018, during E3 2020, a trailer containing several cutscenes from the game was shown. STALKER 2 Launched April 28th, 2022, on Windows PC through the Epic Games Store, Steam, and Xbox Series X. Also available via Xbox Game Pass at launch for both platforms.