The meanness and cynicism of Russian gamers: Ukrainian developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl received an absurd ultimatum
A popular Russian social network (which is under sanctions), the name of which we are not disclosing for reasons of principle, has posted an absurd appeal to the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which is an outright blackmail and manipulation of facts.
What is known
A group calling itself the “The Herald of The Very Stalker” has claimed to have “tens of gigabytes of data” about the hotly anticipated shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, including plot spoilers, maps, descriptions of staged scenes, locations, and more.
We would like to remind you that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is developed by the Ukrainian company GSC Game World.
The Ukrainian studio was given an ultimatum by the Russian attackers:
- to apologize to Russian and Belarusian gamers “for unworthy behavior” (apparently, this refers to the developer’s refusal to officially release the game in these countries and the lack of Russian voice acting);
- adding Russian localization, if not on the release, then “at least as an add-on”.
If these conditions are not met by March 15, all materials will be posted online.
Against the backdrop of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, thousands of war crimes, destroyed cities and a huge number of civilian casualties in Ukraine, the demands to “come to their senses and apologize” look ridiculous and hypocritical.
We would like to remind you that one of the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Volodymyr Yezhov, was also killed defending his country, and in memory of this hero, we urge gamers around the world to ignore leaked materials of the game if they do appear online, and to not give in to blackmail.
