When the voice of the Monolith said ‘come to me’ in STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, it probably did not mean ‘leave Game Pass and go to the PlayStation 5 instead’, but it looks like nobody passed this message on to STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
GSC Game World’s 2024 hit is coming to PS5 on November 20th, a year after its anticipated but troubled release on PC and Xbox Series X|S. While Sony’s camp is excited to see STALKER 2 cross the console wars’ frontline, Game Pass owners find themselves trapped in an anomaly field with no bolts left to throw.
Not all games stay on Game Pass forever, but STALKER 2’s impending departure stings due to the length of the game and its rocky launch, which led many players to avoid it for a long time while waiting for patches.
STALKER 2 Leaves Game Pass Players Stranded
I consider myself a fairly average STALKER fan. I’ve played the original trilogy through a couple of times, and burned more hours than I’m willing to admit in STALKER Anomaly and its hardcore cousin, the GAMMA pack.
Reviewing STALKER 2 was supposed to be one of the highlights of last year, but it quickly turned into an endurance test as I waded through bugs, obnoxious loading times, and a Zone that felt vaguely familiar but functionally lifeless.
To give credit where it’s due, the developers have been hard at work to add the finishing touches to the most ambitious game in the STALKER series, and after a year, this is finally resembling a finished product.
This is where this Game Pass departure stings for many players. I know I’m not alone in waiting for the most substantial issues and features to be taken care of before starting my third playthrough, but if you’ve relied on Xbox for this, your time in the Zone will be interrupted halfway.
Starting this month, all stalkers will have to drop $59.99 for the game, but if you’re on PC, this might just be the start of your troubles. Unless you buy the game through the Xbox store after it leaves Game Pass, your progress won’t carry over to either the Steam or Epic versions of the game.
Last year, Reddit user RudestBuddhist put up a tutorial on how to convert the saves from Game Pass to other versions, which should still work barring unforeseen changes to the file structure. At the moment, there’s no such fix for the achievements.
The STALKER 2 incident is yet another black mark for Xbox recently, following a controversial price hike that led to mass cancellations. Here’s hoping this year’s Black Friday sales will bring heavier discounts on STALKER 2 to soften the blow, because in the Zone, we don’t believe in pricing stalkers out. That’s Sidorovich’s job.
- Released
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November 20, 2024
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ Due To Intense Violence, Blood, Use Of Drugs And Alcohol, Language, Crude Humor
- Developer(s)
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GSC Game World
- Publisher(s)
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GSC Game World
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