S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2: Coronary heart of Chornobyl has loved an enormous launch on Steam, changing into one of many most-played video games on Valve’s platform on launch day.
Ukrainian developer GSC Sport World’s post-apocalyptic horror shooter noticed a peak concurrent participant rely of 113,587 on Steam, a quantity that was sufficient to put S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2 within the platform’s prime 10 most-played video games checklist. That dwarfs the Steam peak concurrent participant rely of all the opposite S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. video games, together with 2007’s S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2 additionally launched on Xbox Sequence X and S and straight into Sport Go, so its mixed peak concurrent participant rely will probably be a lot bigger than what we’ve seen on Steam (Microsoft doesn’t make its participant numbers public). The expectation is that its participant rely will proceed to develop as S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2 heads into its first weekend on sale.
It additionally has a ‘very optimistic’ person evaluation score on Steam, regardless of affected by numerous bugs detailed in IGN’s S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2: Coronary heart of Chornobyl Assessment in Progress.
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GSC Sport World has informed followers it plans to deal with these bugs with a sequence of patches. “S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2 is a large sport,” the developer stated. “We perceive that in such a sport, there should be tough edges: we actually have not launched something of this scale earlier than. We’re completely dedicated to being right here, monitoring your suggestions, and shortly fixing any points that want our consideration.
“Within the first days after launch, we’ll be working with hotfixes, rolling them out as exactly as potential, however as ceaselessly as we are able to. Then, we’ll change to bigger updates that embody fixed enhancements.”
Free in-game content material can also be coming to the sport. Count on extra on that when GSC Sport World shares its roadmap later in December. “We’ve got huge plans for the S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. universe,” the developer added. “In a means, in the present day is each a return and the start of a grand new journey.”
S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2 has suffered quite a few comprehensible delays, most lately in July when the sport was due out in September. GSC Sport World stated on the time that the additional two months would give the builders the possibility to repair “sudden anomalies,” aka bugs.
GSC Sport World has additionally been vocal concerning the challenges the studio confronted getting S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2 as much as scratch after a combined response to its debut public displaying final yr. At gamescom 2023, GSC Sport World addressed what some had referred to as a “downgrade” sparked by S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2’s then newest gameplay trailer. On the time, GSC Sport World informed IGN it was nonetheless focusing on a visible high quality and degree of polish recommended by S.T.A.L.Okay.E.R. 2’s eye-catching 2021 trailer regardless of the horrendous circumstances suffered by the workers amid the battle with Russia.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.