Rock, Paper, Shotgun

LATEST UPDATE: GSC’s twitter this morning announced there will be an official statement on Monday.

1c Ukraine’s Sergey Galenkin has blogged about the closure of GSC. He states: “GSC is closed, a fact confirmed by all. The team is almost completely dissolved, the state has only a few people.” Galenkin blames the cost of developing a PC only shooter for a European audience, and a failed console publishing deal, for the collapse of the developer.

The rest of the story, as it happened, below.
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Following yesterday’s DRM-alarm going off, GSC have now said that using an always-on solution is for them “a possibility, not a choice.” We also received this statement:

“The idea of implementing DRM came in as a possible anti-piracy solution. You know the severe level of commercial piracy we have here in ex-USSR region. This said however, there is no firm decision to go for DRM with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 as of now. Be assured, we do realize how uncomfortable this solution is for the players, so we’ll continue looking for most effective, yet acceptable for all, way of protecting the game by the time of its release.”

Kotaku Australia are reporting this Ukrainian publication’s interview with GSC’s Studio Director Sergey Grigorovich. In it it he answers a huge number of questions, revealing little about the sequel apart from question one about “security” for the forthcoming game:

“Software piracy is an issue for us, we try to fight it, but within reason… Protection from piracy? Part of the content will be located on the server and downloaded as the game progresses. Permanent internet access is required. Text information, code and quests will be loaded through that connection.”

I’ve contacted GSC for a statement.

Pat over at VG247 points out that Official Stalker Facebook page has a brief Q&A that seems to reveal the first details about the game and its all-new engine. It will be set in the familiar Chernobyl Zone locations, and will apparently have more of a survival element the next time around, as well as the return of the spooky lab bits. There will be no faction wars in the sequel, but there will be DX11 support, and the “area of artifact application will expand”. The Q&A also goes out of its way to stress that despite the announced multiplatform intentions for this new game, the PC version will not suffer, and will be the target platform. Interesting stuff. Needless to say, I’ve asked GSC for a detailed interview about the game.

GSC have been vaguely rumbling about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 for a while now, but it seems that they’ve decided to officially announce its development and arrival in 2012. A news article over on the company’s main site makes the matter known, saying that it the technology will be “completely new” – a statement which could be aimed at rumours GSC were going to use the Crysis engine. “”After the official sales of the series exceeded 4 million copies worldwide, we had no doubts left to start creating a new big game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe,” says GSC’s Sergiy Grygorovych. “This will be the next chapter of the mega-popular game players expect from us.”

Don’t just stand there, etc. I’ll get in the queue for an interview.

Crytek last night announced the latest incarnation of their engine, CryENGINE 3 is now available to be licensed. Now that may not affect you or me (unless you’re a games developer of course), but there’s some interesting implications of this latest tech. Of course, it first of all means games are going to be prettier – these are the people who keep bowling us over with each new engine as it creates vivid beaches and jungles. But it’s also looking to streamline development across multiple platforms – letting programmers see how the game will appear in PC, 360 and PS3 on the fly. And rumours abound that it may be the engine of choice for STALKER 2.

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