Now Xbox has begun refunding pre-orders for the game, as first reported by
Polish site XGP, with a message accompanying the refunds saying that the game has been postponed until an "unconfirmed date in the future." The Xbox Store has also stopped taking pre-orders for the game entirely. This however is not an indication of anything wider than a Microsoft policy of refunding pre-orders for games without a firm release date: why it's happened now is puzzling, but that is the reason why.
This understandably sparked rumours of another Stalker 2 delay, as GSC Game World is currently in the process of relocating its main office to Prague, while the wider conflict does not yet seem close to a peaceful resolution. But GSC tells us that this is not the case.
"We had to postpone the game to 2023 with no exact release date for now," writes a GSC spokesperson. "We made the announcement at E3 Microsoft Extended show, alongside the Dev Diary and intro cutscene. Microsoft refunds preorders for the games with no exact release date. When we announce the exact release date later on, the preorders will go live again for Xbox. Pre-orders on PC (Steam, EGS, GOG) are not affected by this."
The Steam listing for the game now has something a little firmer: what was once 2023 is now
December 2023. The Epic Store, meanwhile,
reckons it came out about a month ago(opens in new tab).
