STALKER - Shadows of Chernobyl hoopla?

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Human Shield spotted this at Duck and Cover:

 

Information about THQ being not satisfied with the situation that developed inside GSC had already reached us before. "They (THQ) didn't even imagine what it's like to work with GSC, - shares with us one of the former members of the company - they didn't even understand who they dealt with. STALKER always was in the state of general design. It's always been a project which was more spoken of than really done." Another source claims that at the end of November THQ made a decision to stop financing the development and to conduct a thorough revision to gain control over the development process. "We don't care what shape the game will ship in anymore, - said one of the THQ bosses to an IGN journalist, - the game must ship in 2006".

 

In addition to all this last week part of the original STALKER development team was moved to another project and another part was simply made redundant. "These were considerable dismissals," - told the source that still remained a member of the GSC staff, - "I heard that next week a THQ representative will arrive and he is going to stay until the project is finished."

 

The third source has information that a brand new engine not based on X-ray technology was in the works inside GSC, which could have been used to power renovated STALKER. Almost all of the team left the studio taking the technology created in a few months with them. GSC representatives consider this fact as theft, but former employees refer to "special circumstances". One of the members of the GSC team assumes that STALKER could be taken away along with the source code by the THQ representatives and handed to another team for work on the project. We attempted to contact GSC representatives but failed to receive an answer. THQ representatives commented on the issue drily: "No comments".

 

 

But on the official page it can be read:

 

 

Clarifying rumours on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - 30/01/2006

 

To clarify the concerns of some fans regarding S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-related rumours to have appeared recently on the net, GSC Game World believes it necessary to explain the following:

[*]The project is on the stage of beta approval and is being actively developed in close cooperation with the publisher.

 

 

[*]The team has undergone certain reductions, particularly in the art section, due to all the graphics-related works being almost complete (out of 40 people 5 were dismissed). None of the leads, programmers and moreover, testers may not be reduced at any time.

 

 

[*]Regarding the technology leak, none of the designers gone has the rights to the game

[Llyranor]

"As part of the conference call discussing their third quarter fiscal year 2006 results, THQ announced that the Gas Powered Games strategy game Supreme Commander and GSC Game World's action game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl will not be released during 2006. Instead both titles are scheduled for THQ's fourth quarter of the 2007 fiscal year, which means the games should see the light of day sometime between January and March 2007."

 

I'm concerned about the STALKER part, but SupCom will be in 2007 :ph34r: Which is good, if that means more time spent on refining it.

[J.E. Sawyer]

"Beta approval" + "art almost done" = "not Beta"

[Darque]

This game seems to be a dead end then.

[Darque]

It's made by Uwe Boll?

[CoM_Solaufein]

It's made by Uwe Boll?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Now that doesn't sound good.

[Darque]

And the reply would have made more sense if someone hadn't deleted theirs.

[CoM_Solaufein]

And the reply would have made more sense if someone hadn't deleted theirs.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

An unfortunate shame.

[metadigital]

... out of 40 people 5 were dismissed ...

I take it this was a "lost in translation" type of comment, because I wouldn't expect people to be "dismissed" for completing their projected work ...