Conflicting reports from all over the net are surfacing after a Ukrainian news site called UkraNews reported this morning that GSC has been closed by owner Sergei Grigorovich.
According to the report, Grigorovich is shuttering the studio due to personal reasons he didn’t wish to discuss, but said the 40-50 employees working at the studio would be provided with wages owed them, up to February 2012.
Various sources close to the site, state the reasons for the closure have something to do with Grigorovich being displeased with the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, while another source states it has more to do with Ukranian law enforcement wanting control over GSC.
The company’s official Twitter account responded to the report stating: “No we have not closed GSC or cancelled #stalker2″. Shortly thereafter, the tweet was removed, with GSC’s Dmitri Bourkovski tweeting later: “Not PR. GSC closed.”
1C Ukraine’s Sergey Galenkin confirmed the studio’s closure on his personal blog, stating: “GSC is closed, a fact confirmed by all. The team is almost completely dissolved, the state has only a few people.”
Galenkin went on to say that the cost of developing the game for a European audience was one of the reasons for the closure, along with a “failed console publishing deal.”
RPS contacted GSC, and the response was: “Sorry, no comments at this point”. The firm’s social media manager has since announced he is looking for a new job as well, confirming at least one employee at GSC is no longer with the firm.
Hopefully a clear statement on the matter will be issued shortly.
Quite a bit of concept art from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been posted over on the Ascian Blog. You should check it out, as it looks rather great.
