STALKER developer GSC Game World is investigating the possibility of including mod support for the upcoming sequel on Xbox Series X / S.
These details first came to light on the Russian podcast “Не занесли”, the most recent episode of which included an interview with GSC Game World PR manager Zakhar Bocharov. According to translations from the Indian gaming outlet Gamingsym, Bocharov was careful not to give too much information, but said that developers were seeking support for mods on Xbox due to the franchise’s historically passionate modding community.
“Modifications are extremely important to the STALKER franchise, so our case can be considered quite unique,” Bocharov told Kotaku when contacted for clarification via email. “To some extent, we have chosen the Unreal Engine for STALKER 2 because of its compatibility with mods.”
GSC Game World, Bocharov continued, is committed to making mod support a priority for STALKER 2 on PC, and we look forward to implementing that functionality as soon as possible. But Xbox is a completely different story.
“The Xbox ecosystem is completely different,” Bocharov added in the email to Kotaku. “There [have been] official mod support cases in the Xbox family, and Microsoft was very supportive with all of our ideas so far. We are thoroughly investigating what we can do right now, and there is probably a way that our ideas can become reality. However, this should not be considered as an official announcement, as the development process is a long way from trying and optimizing it. [until] release.”
Kotaku also contacted Microsoft about the possibility of Xbox Series X / S supporting STALKER 2 mods, but received no response prior to posting.
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As Bocharov pointed out, official support for mods on consoles is not completely unknown. High-profile releases like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4 allowed players to tweak their games with third-party patches and, more recently, Snowrunner added support for mods on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. And although no current Xbox games Series X has included this functionality, mods intended for older consoles can still be used on the next-gen platform. That’s not to say that enabling mod support on consoles isn’t a stumbling block for developers yet, but it’s certainly not as difficult as it once was.
Despite being a wonderful experience, the original STALKER is notoriously silly. Players used to encourage newcomers to go through an extensive modification process before touching the game to make it more stable. With over a decade of additional development experience under its belt, I hope GSC Game World avoids making the same mistakes with STALKER 2, but it’s reassuring to know that the studio is looking for ways to avoid leaving Xbox gamers out in the cold when it is about support for mods.
After the 2007 debut of STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, the post-apocalyptic survival game quickly spawned two sequels in 2008’s Clear Sky and 2009’s Call of Pripyat. A numbered sequel has been in the works in some form for nearly 12 years.
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