The Ukrainian studio GSC Game World and Xbox will release a documentary about the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which will show how the developers worked on the game during the war in Ukraine, and have already presented the first trailer. It was reported by Variety.
In the film, the developers will tell firsthand how the game was developed during the war, as well as how GSC Game World moved its studio to Prague to complete the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
“It wasn’t my dream to do this film. But I really think it’s important to share. It’s not about like, I really want to share something from my personal life, or for our team, as well. We are really not public people and it’s hard to share something personal. But when this opportunity comes to us from Microsoft, we thought that it’s important to share with the world a little bit more about how difficult it is to live in a wartime from the personal side. Because mostly people only see something if something terrible happens and everybody, I hope, thinks, ‘Oh, it’s bad.’ But when you see specific people who can share some real story, maybe someone can imagine how hard it is and why any war is something bad. It’s impossible for me to find some reason to start a war,” says Maria Grygorovych.
The movie will be officially titled War Game: The Making of 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, and is directed by Andrew Stephan, producer of the miniseries Power On: The Story of Xbox. The film will focus on the personal stories of creative director Maria Grigorovich and her team during the war.
“At Xbox we were very aware of the circumstances surrounding GSC when the war began. As time went on it became apparent their situation would continue to be dire not just for them professionally but personally. Every day we see firsthand the difficulty and challenges of making games, but this was on a completely different scale. In late 2022, we pitched the idea of a documentary film. GSC had a story that deserved to be told and shared, and we felt we were best positioned to help them tell it. Once we began having conversations with Maria, Zak and Eugene, it was clear they had been thinking the same thing, and we collectively decided we wanted to make a documentary film together. We hired director Andrew Stephan, who was our director on our most recent documentary ‘Power On: The Story of Xbox,’ to help us get this right, and we could not be prouder to stand behind not just this film but behind GSC Game World and ‘S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2,'” said Xbox General Manager of Programming and Events Tina Summerford.
Recently, GSC Game World presented a new trailer for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which showed the return of the iconic character. The game is set to release on Xbox Series X|S and PC on November 20, 2024.