The future of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise and its developer, GSC Game World, remains uncertain after conflicting reports surfaced today regarding the studio's closure.
The confusion began with an article posted on Ukranews that claimed GSC CEO Sergei Grigorovich had voluntarily decided to shutter the studio's doors. According to an unnamed source, Grigorovich was unhappy with progress on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and called a company-wide meeting to announce the closure this afternoon.
Shortly after the story broke, the official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Twitter account, @gscstalker, posted an outright denial of the report: "No we have not closed GSC or cancelled [S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2]."
Unfortunately, the story doesn't stop there. That promising tweet has since been deleted, and GSC has clammed up on the matter entirely. Both their Twitter account and Facebook page have gone silent, and the company responded to Rock, Paper, Shotgun's inquiries with a troubling, "Sorry, no comments at this point."
At the moment, no one's entirely certain what's happening, though the longer we go without any sort of explanation, the more likely it seems that GSC has in fact decided to fold and is merely holding off until they can make an official statement.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was originally scheduled for release on the 360, PS3, and PC sometime next year.
