It turns out Phil Spencer gave GSC Game World a really, really good deal.
As GSC Game World founder Sergiy Grygorovych revealed in a new interview, XBOX offered them a huge Game Pass Deal for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. In fact, it was even bigger than the game’s budget.
We do have to be careful if something is lost in translation, but Sergiy apparently said that it paid for itself. We’ll do our best to piece together the context here.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 released on November 20, on Xbox and PC and as a Day One Game Pass title. It sold 3 million copies and reached 6 million players in the first five months. GSC said that it was already profitable one month after release.
But we shouldn’t forget that this is the same S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 that survived an ongoing real-life conflict. And even before that, it was announced in 2010 and cancelled in 2012, as GSC itself went bankrupt.
It’s no exaggeration to say that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 even existing is a miracle as it is. We’re sure GSC will always appreciate that XBOX stepped up, when it wasn’t clear that the industry was willing to support them.
