S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gets new license-holder
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
BitComposer Entertainment picks up exclusive rights for future games, killing speculation that Bethesda would take series over.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has a new license-holder, and it is not Bethesda, as was rumored. BitComposer Entertainment announced today that it had acquired the exclusive worldwide rights for future game adaptations of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand created by brothers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. Boris passed away on November 19 this year, the announcement said.
BitComposer Entertainment is no stranger to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, as the Eschborn-based company served as publisher on 2010 open-world shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat in Europe and the United States.
The fate of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has been enshrouded in mystery of late. Earlier this year, rumor had it that Fallout and Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda was to take over the series. Before that, developer GSC Game World was shut down, with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 being canceled outright, despite efforts to keep the project alive.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are centered around Chernobyl, which suffered a nuclear reactor meltdown in 1986. In the original game, the town is subjected to a second dose of nuclear fallout, spawning a rash of hideously mutated monsters. GSC Game World released two follow-ups to the original game: Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
90 comments
2 Like Man I wish the guys from THQ would get this to make it like a Metro 2033 version with free roam, that would be so awesome :D
2 Like Bit Composer worked on Call of Pripyat, an excellent very stable game. Whats with all these deliquent morons talking about Jagged Alliance? Completely different games so its not a sure thing anything they touch turns to shit unlike 95% of the comments here which are shit the minute "post comment" is clicked?
that would be great ^^ sweet ~ too keep the project alive amazing simplly amazing i love bethesda
Actually, the situation is somewhat unclear. The Strugatsky brothers were authors of "Roadside Picnic", that inspired S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series, but they did not hold the rights for games.
GSC Game World denies the license selling. http://www.facebook.com/officialstalker/posts/563495603676359
Let's hope for the best. Who knows, maybe this developer will hit the jackpot by creating the best S.T.A.L.K.E.R. yet...
Why out of all the potentially good development studios out there did it have to be sold to BitComposer ?
They recently ruined Jagged Alliance, not they'll ruin Stalker too.
Should've just let it die in peace and retain the dignity, but I guess as ever so often it's all just about the money.
I don't feel bad for the previous license holder, but with this news announcement all future Stalker releases are by default on my "watch out" list before they'll most likely end up on my "don't buy" list.
Unless the game is practically finished already, I really don't see any way in hell they're going to release it with the same appeal of the first 3 games.
4 Like One of the reasons I love dayZ so much is the fact that I love the Stalker series to death.
The three Stalker games are awesome, classics! Best FPS games of the last 10 years.
Mark my words, bitComposer will find a way to mess it up! Want proof? Play Jagged Alliance Back in Action...
1 Like should I play shadows of chernobyl only or Call of pripyat is also worth it? I want to buy it now off Steam but I wonder if I get the bundle or not
1 Like i played all 3 stalker games, personally, call of pripyat was the best.
the vanila game on it self is okay, but if you put in the "misery" mod, it makes the game much more difficult and fun.
(also, get the visual enhancing mods, it looks kinda ugly without them)
2 Like
Shadow of Chernobyl remains my favorite, though Call of Pripyat was technically the best of the 3. SoC just had such impact! When it was released (at last!) I was following the game for nearly 6 years! And played all the leaked Alpha's:)
I still have all three Stalkers installed, only mod I use is the Complete Mod, you get a version for all three games...
@GamerOuTLaWz @MindlessTeef @snova9308 The emissions were awesome, didn't limit exploration at all and was something that was suppose to have been in the first Stalker as well. SoC had one emission near the end. CoP was technically the best of the 3 although SoC still remains my personal favorite. Such a GREAT franchise... I will miss it.
@GamerOuTLaWz @MindlessTeef @snova9308 you mean "emissions", those doesn't ruin the game, in contrary it adds some more flavor to the game!
@MindlessTeef @snova9308 Crap,I read CoP was annoying cause of some kind of repetitive explosion that forces you to run indoor and limits your exploration compared to SoC so I only bought SoC...anyway Ill get to enjoy what stalker is no matter hwat :P and yeah Ill make sure to pick up Complete 2009 mod
Hopefully once the original STALKER devs are done with their current game we can get another STALKER game published by BitComposer again.
@Toxic-Seahorse Not going to happen, the original Dev's, GSC Gameworld, sadly... is no more. Stalker 2 was months away from completion. Stalker 2 will go to bC so they can bugger it up like they did JA. Most of GSC Gameworld (the ones that didn't go to 4A Games and made Metro 2033 some time ago) started a new company, Vostok Games. They are making a online FPS called Survarium.
1 Like @MindlessTeef That's what I was talking about. When Vostok is done with their game, maybe BitComposer can get them to make a new STALKER game. Vostok is a dev team containing most of the GSC team that made the STALKER games.
@Toxic-Seahorse I hope that you are right, bC got Coreplay to make the JA2 remake and they only messed it up. I hope bC picks a better dev to make the next Stalker or finish Stalker 2.
And lets make you look even more like a journalist who is barely qualified.
"Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, wrote the sci-fi book 'Roadside Picnic' published in 1972.
They are NOT the developers of the STALKER games."
1977 was the english publication btw.
1 Like Well since this article is horribly inaccurate i can only guess it was written by Eddie...now lets see here...what do you know it was.
Eddie your such a dam joke.Allow me to clarify with another one of the comments here.
"Correction to the author: BitComposer bought the rights to Stalker, the 1979 film based on the 1977 book "Roadside Picnic" which inspired the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. The rights to the well-known open-world FPS games remain in GSC hands, but BitComposer can now make titles based, pretty much, in the same world :/"
Now fix it you numnut.
Don't dumb down , in fact make it HARDER and HARSHER , a more realistc experience would've been pretty good , just hope they keep the same way of handling the game world with extensive animal migration and trading routes and stuff , I also hope they keep the game non generic
More S.T.A.L.K.E.R. please.
Don't dumb it down and change it to fit the masses and console games. Don't change it. Just make more of it.
I don't want to see another great game go the way Crysis did.
According to STALKER's facebook page, this isn't true. Can anyone clarify?https://www.facebook.com/officialstalker/posts/563495603676359
1 Like STALKER is one of my favorite game series. The atmosphere and style are legendary, and I was very sad to hear it had gone bankrupt before we could see a new, updated STALKER game for current-gen computers. I love that it's continued, but hope they can still capture the series' unique feel.
Hopefully they will have something like the Star Citizen model so the game can expand and be funded.
Just give me a new Fallout game when the xbox 720 comes out and I'll be happy...
Maybe make it in Europe or something
1 Like Absolutely great game, open world+FPS shooter+RPG style+creepy exciting environment+ night n day mode = outstanding =)
I've logged in just to write here because this article is stirring up a lot of misinformation and stupidity.
Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, wrote the sci-fi book 'Roadside Picnic' published in 1972.
They are NOT the developers of the STALKER games.
I want more STALKER games :(
I've been playing the first three for years now, there's nothing out there like them.
I've been playing Stalker Online. It has the absolute worse tutorial of any game I've ever played, but once you get past it, the game gets really good/interesting. That being said, it's a beta and it certainly feels very beta.
If you're interested, PM me for my username.
Rest in peace, Boris Strugatsky.. WIth your brother, you created one of the best games of the last decade.
1 Like No, they wrote one of the best books of the last century, which inspired other people to make a movie, which in turn inspired ever different people to make an epic game series.
Roadside Picnic (Original Publication) - 1972
Roadside Picnic (in English) - 1977
Stalker (Film) - 1979
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - (2007)
This comment has been deleted
@pongley @SimatheStalker It was just Clear Sky that had major bugs, SoC had a few minor ones, but CoP was one of the most stable games I ever played.
@SimatheStalker; Maybe it is time to back on the meds?
@pongley @SimatheStalker CoP does tart picking up, really would be worth going back to. It is nearly as good as SoC... and even better in ways.
@MindlessTeef @SimatheStalker Yeah, I kinda skipped all of that. The games are much better when you just live in that environment, doing the main story and picking up random missions as you go through the map. I'm hoping that any future stalkers bring back that organic feel I do have CoP but I never got very far, it feels like a demo for some reason so I felt no reason to keep playing.
@pongley @SimatheStalker Yeah, I remember the patches all to well, SoC was still mostly playable. The "faction wars" of Clear Sky never worked...
@MindlessTeef @SimatheStalker SoC was notorious for it's bugs, it had 4 fairly large patches. Clear Sky was actually more notorious for it's patches for making things worse.
6 Like Correction to the author: BitComposer bought the rights to Stalker, the 1979 film based on the 1950 book "Roadside Picnic" which inspired the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. The rights to the well-known open-world FPS games remain in GSC hands, but BitComposer can now make titles based, pretty much, in the same world :/
GSC was unable to attain rights to Stalker, hence the title of the games being S.T.A.L.K.E.R., to avoid copyright problems.
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
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- Publisher(s): Viva Media, LLC
- Developer(s): GSC Game World
- Genre: Action
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- ESRB: M
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