STALKER 2 developer suffers Russia-linked safety breach: ‘Now we have been enduring fixed cyberattacks for greater than a yr now’

Within the morning of March 12, STALKER developer GSC Sport World uploaded an announcement (opens in new tab) to Twitter describing a safety breach on the firm. GSC lays the blame at a “neighborhood from a Russian social community,” and warns of potential leaks and spoilers for the upcoming STALKER 2. As reported by GameRant (opens in new tab), this appears to be in response to a publish from the account Вестник «Того Самого Сталкера» (opens in new tab) (auto translate: “Herald of ‘The Identical STALKER'”) on the Russian social media platform VK.

GSC says that an worker “account for a collective work-with-images utility was hacked,” and alludes to earlier cyberattacks on the corporate regarding the continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the place GSC relies. “Our unwavering dedication to supporting our nation stays unchanged⁠—we’ll proceed to do the whole lot attainable to assist Ukraine, and this may not change sooner or later below any circumstances.”

The developer goes on to warning followers about STALKER 2 leaks, and requests that they keep away from disseminating such materials: “Within the occasion of any leaks, we ask that you simply chorus from watching or distributing details about STALKER 2: Coronary heart of Chernobyl. Outdated and work-in-progress supplies could dilute the impression of the ultimate concept that now we have put into the sport.”

The offending VK account initially scans because the kind of fan neighborhood you are prone to discover on any social media platform. It has 11,000 followers and, sarcastically, its guidelines prohibit “unlawful content material,” in addition to “politics and political overtones.” I’d argue that the STALKER 2 growth supplies obtained through hacking represent the previous, whereas the account holder’s calls for of GSC are, effectively, fairly political:

“Change your thoughts, rethink your perspective in direction of gamers from Belarus and Russia, apologize for the unworthy perspective in direction of atypical gamers from these international locations.We propose unbanning the NF Star profile in your official Discord – you banned me for nothing, due to this I needed to cease holding again.A separate subject is the return of ru-localization. Followers are ready for it out of your official firm. It isn’t essential to spoil the sport for individuals due to politics.”

I feel what most stands out to me is how a lot this rhymes with fan outrage moments we have seen prior to now⁠—speak of “avoiding politics” and “unban me out of your Discord instantly” appears to crop up any time somebody makes a localization change to a Japanese launch or places a homosexual character of their videogame. Right here although, it is within the context of a twenty first century European land conflict. “It isn’t essential to spoil the sport for individuals due to politics” certainly.

GSC Sport World will nearly assuredly not budge on these factors, and in response to its assertion on Twitter, the Herald revealed extra idea artwork obtained within the hack. GSC’s point out of a “work-with-images” utility, in addition to the account’s publishing of solely pictures to this point, leads me to imagine that it doesn’t have extra substantial supplies like growth paperwork, video, or an in-progress construct, however we doubtless will not have to attend lengthy to see how huge the hack was.

Final August, a Russian streamer and STALKER fan leaked footage of an unreleased console model of the primary STALKER (opens in new tab), citing comparable pro-Russia motivations to right now’s leak. For extra on how the Russia-Ukraine conflict has impacted the video games trade, PCG affiliate editor Joshua Wolens just lately did a deep dive on the motivation behind Western scrutiny of Atomic Coronary heart developer, Mundfish (opens in new tab), which is headquartered in Cyprus however appears to have lots of its operations in Moscow and St. Petersburg.