A surprising new market listing has revealed an upcoming video game release that hasn’t been officially announced yet.
As reported by Insider Gaming, Japanese retailers Neowing and Rakuten have unwittingly revealed the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Legends Of The Zone to PlayStation 4. The title is dated for June 27, 2024 and priced at $ 40, and will bundle the first three games in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R franchise. Namely, these would be S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat.
So, that is quite the unexpected turn coming from Microsoft. The original S.T.A.L.K.E.R games were only released on PC, with the last such title releasing all the way back in 2009. At this point in time, some shooters were already being brought to consoles, but we weren’t yet at the point where shooting mechanics on game controllers hadn’t been refined to the standard that we are used to today.
This will be the first time all three games will be available on consoles, and the reason for that is obvious. Those original games released on Windows were not designed to be played on consoles at all; and even modern players will struggle to properly remap them even on Steam Deck, because there were so many commands that were programmed on a keyboard.
What this all means is that this anthology is a real, proper port. Even if the developers had access to the source code, they would have had to reprogram so many things to make game controllers work. In fact, it was more likely that the developers used a modern engine, and applied the original assets to it, with some degree of upresolution or other effects, to meet the expectations of modern gamers.
I hadn’t stated that GSC Game World where the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Legends Of The Zone, because there is a real possibility that they are not. Microsoft could have very well lined up this new rerelease of the original games to coincide with the upcoming release of GSC’s next title, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
They wouldn’t be lacking for capable developers to make this port for them, between Nightdive Studios, Saber Interactive, and THQ Nordic. But what’s really curious is that the listing is only for PlayStation 4. It seems likely this rerelease is hitting more platforms. And with Microsoft as publisher, it’s certainly guaranteed to come to PC and Xbox, maybe on Game Pass Day One. It’s probably confirmed for PlayStation 5, and it just might also arrive on the Nintendo Switch, or the Switch 2.
In any case, we are looking forward to Microsoft officially revealing this title, which they may have to do immediately given its unintended leak.
