Material from the unreleased shooter surfaced just a few days ago. Now the developers are coming forward with a statement.
After the developers of Stalker 2 had to deal with leaks before, things got even worse in the past few days: over 200 gigabytes of internal files suddenly surfaced on the internet containing an early build of the game. At first, the developers were lucky because the files were encrypted and therefore inaccessible. Now, however, the encryption has apparently been cracked.
Don’t ruin the game
Since yesterday, therefore, individual, authentic leaks and sometimes entire gameplay videos based on the leaked files have been appearing again and again. Now the developers are addressing the fans with a message:
A message from GSC Game World team pic.twitter.com/gSslCNxvTb
– S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) June 1, 2023
A vulnerability has been identified that has been exploited by a group of Russian hackers
who have been attacking the developer for more than a year. Unfortunately, the attackers had previously obtained data used for internal testing.
Fans are now being asked not to share or view the leaked materials. While they would not be ready for release, players could ruin the experience of exploring the zone themselves. Lastly, the developers assure that they will continue to work passionately on their game and thank the fans for their support and understanding
Encryption must have been broken
While the emergence of the developer builds of Stalker 2 is said not to be due to a hacking attack. But since the files were encrypted, someone must still have specifically gained access to them.
One of our readers, who is active in the Stalker modding scene, told us that he had more detailed information. A user from the USA originally came across the file while searching public torrent networks and forwarded it to the modding scene.
The modders then investigated the encrypted files further. Finally, a programmer came across the corresponding key during the research, whereupon it was possible to make the test builds functional. Of course, we cannot verify from our side whether this is exactly how the story went down.
Have you come across leaked gameplay videos of Stalker 2: Shadow of Chornobyl on Reddit and the like? Do you watch them, or do you take the developers’ request into consideration? What is your general opinion on leaks? And how do you like what you’ve seen of the new Stalker so far? Feel free to let us know in the comments!
