The founding father of Stalker 2 developer GSC Sport World has stated the sport turned a revenue earlier than it even got here out due to the cash Microsoft paid for Xbox exclusivity.
In an interview with YouTuber OLDboi, GSC Sport World founder Sergiy Grygorovych stated that Microsoft was so impressed by the variety of views the debut Stalker 2 trailer obtained, that it quickly received in contact with the Ukraine firm to barter phrases for exclusivity.
“We took greater than the price of Stalker 2,” Grygorovych, who has since left GSC Sport World to make a new sport with a new studio, stated. “It paid for itself earlier than the primary day.” IGN has requested GSC Sport World for remark.
Xbox was closely concerned with Stalker 2, which was made amid Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It snapped up timed console exclusivity and a day-one launch on Xbox Sport Cross, whereas additionally serving to to provide and market the sport, in addition to a making-of documentary.
After a sequence of comprehensible delays, Stalker 2 launched on PC and Xbox Sequence X and S in November 2024, in addition to on Sport Cross. It was launched on PlayStation 5 a yr later, in November 2025. Stalker 2 was initially due out a lot earlier, in This fall 2021, as per paperwork revealed in 2021.
Stalker 2 was a gross sales success, hitting 1 million copies in two days. It has to date surpassed 6 million gamers. Price of Hope, the primary main story growth for Stalker 2, launched in the summertime.
Grygorovych didn’t say how a lot cash Microsoft paid for the exclusivity, nor how a lot Stalker 2 price to develop. However his feedback do shine a gentle on Microsoft’s gaming philosophy when it was build up its content material portfolio to assist increase curiosity in Sport Cross.
Certainly, builders have over time praised Microsoft for reducing beneficiant offers for Sport Cross and exclusivity, with some saying they helped cut back danger and hold studios afloat.
Now, amid new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s “reset” of Microsoft’s gaming enterprise, the way forward for Sport Cross is unclear. Microsoft reduce 1,600 employees from Xbox earlier this month, with one other 1,600 to go this monetary yr. Sharma has pulled Name of Obligation out of Sport Cross as a day-one launch title, and is doubling down on Xbox’s greatest franchises, resembling Fallout. 4 studios are confirmed to be leaving Microsoft possession, with one other on its means. Sharma has known as it essentially the most “important” restructure in Xbox historical past, insisting Microsoft’s gaming enterprise “isn’t wholesome.”
Talking on MinnMax, Mike Brown, who was inventive director on the massively profitable Forza Horizon 5 earlier than leaving developer Playground to discovered his personal studio, Maverick Video games, which is about to launch an open world racer of his personal known as Clutch, stated this week that Sport Cross had did not hit sufficient subscribers to justify Microsoft’s big spending on content material acquisition. This consists of the eye-watering $69 billion Microsoft splashed out on Name of Obligation developer Activision Blizzard.
“I feel it is actually unhappy and I feel it is actually, actually unlucky,” Brown started. “They’ve actually invested a fortune within the idea of Sport Cross as a service, which led to a great deal of groups being acquired, a great deal of video games being funded, a great deal of individuals getting jobs, all with a imaginative and prescient of getting common video games touchdown on this service for gamers. I feel the truth isn’t sufficient individuals have subscribed to it on the costs that they wanted to pay as a way to make that enterprise viable.
“And, that’s truly simply actually unhappy. As a result of we’re now going to see studios getting shut down or spun off, and a great deal of individuals are going to lose their jobs, and that’s actually simply a results of a well-meaning, player-focused idea of Xbox Sport Cross not fairly touchdown.”
Brown went on to defend Microsoft and Sport Cross, praising the idea of the subscription service and the video games that may in any other case not have been made have been it to not have existed.
Xbox Video games Sequence Tier Record
Xbox Video games Sequence Tier Record
“It’s simply a actual disgrace,” he continued. “And as a lot as individuals level fingers and name completely different individuals inside Xbox the villain of the piece, the idea of Sport Cross was good. Like, it is a good thought. Let’s have a subscription, make it inexpensive, try to get video games to extra individuals. We’ll have a actually various collection of video games on there. We’ll get a load of studios concerned. We’ll make some video games that in all probability could not exist in any other case. And if extra individuals had subscribed, that makes sufficient cash and it really works, and all of these studios go on and people video games get made once more and people groups will make different video games. Sadly, it didn’t.
“I don’t know the quantity it wanted to hit was, but it surely by no means reached the quantity that may make a $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard make monetary sense. It’s actually unlucky. We don’t know what the long run is simply but, however it’s a reshaping of the enterprise round that, after the primary idea didn’t fairly land.”
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.