It's finally time for players to get their hands on Stalker 2 after GSC Game World delayed it once back in January 2024 to deal with some technical issues and then again in July 2024 to give the devs time to fix some "unexpected anomalies."
Stalker 2 is a direct sequel to the 2007 game Stalker: Shadow of Chornobyl and, therefore, will include locations from the original, which have been updated and refurbished, as well as some new places to explore.
What is the Stalker 2 release date?
Stalker 2 will be released on November 20, 2024, for most places, both as a standalone PC release and on Game Pass. As for preorders, you can purchase the standard game for $60 / £50, the Deluxe Edition for $80 / £66, and the Ultimate Edition for $110 / £90.
With the Deluxe Edition, players will have access to bonus weapons like the PTM pistol "Monolith", Integral-A SMG "Riemann", and the Lavina SA assault rifle "Gabion", which are only available for the singleplayer campaign. Then there's the AR416 "Monolith", M701 sniper rifle "Hunter", and the M860 shotgun "Monolith" which can also be transferred to multiplayer. There are also three suits, a bonus side quest, and an official art book and soundtrack set.
For the Ultimate Edition, players will get all the bonuses in the Deluxe Edition plus four more weapons, a new suit, and a season pass that will grant two additional expansions and any future DLCs. However, just because you can preorder Stalker 2 doesn't mean that there's an early access period—everyone will get to play it at the same time, more or less.
Stalker 2 release times
Stalker 2 releases on November 20 for almost all territories accept for the few that will instead get the game on November 21. See the full list of times below so you can figure out what time it unlocks for you:
November 20
- Pacific Standard Time: 8 am (Seattle)
- Eastern Standard Time: 11 am (New York)
- Brasilia Time: 1 pm (São Paulo)
- Greenwich Mean Time: 4 pm (London)
- Central European Time: 5 pm (Prague)
- Eastern European Time: 6 pm (Kyiv)
November 21
- China Standard Time: 12 am (Beijing)
- Japan Standard Time: 1 am (Tokyo)
- Australian Eastern Daylight Time: 3 am (Sydney)
- New Zealand Daylight Time: 5 am (Auckland)
Is there a Stalker 2 preload?
While preloads are increasingly common for new games with a massive download, unfortunately PC players of Stalker 2 won't be able to reap the benefits of this. Despite having a terrifying download size of 160GB, the official Stalker 2 discord confirmed that "PC stores won't have a preload." So, I guess it's everyone for themselves on release day—I can't wait to join in the fun once the percentage bar has finally completed two weeks from now.
The game’s system requirements also confirmed that players would need to install Stalker 2 on solid-state drive (SSD) as older hard disk drives (HDDs) may take too long to load the textures and other assets. But at the very least, you'll have a couple of days to figure out which games will get the boot so you can make space for Stalker 2.
