STALKER dev dies in Ukraine war, official account pays respect

Volodymyr Yezhov has died during a battle in the Ukraine war, the team at GSC Game World is paying their respects

Volodymyr Yezhov, developer at Ukrainian studio GSC Game World, has died while fighting in the war in Ukraine. It was announced on Twitter by the official Ukraine Ministry of Defense which said the following:

“Volodymyr Yezhov, one of the developers of [STALKER] died in a battle near Bakhmut, defending Ukraine from russian invaders. Volodymyr was a father to two sons. Eternal glory to the Hero!”

The official STALKER Twitter account replied to this post, paying their respects to their late team member:

“Volodymyr gave us so many games, so many universes…the players will always remember him. Thank you, Volodymyr. Our condolences to the family. Ukraine has lost another hero. Герої не вмирають.”

The STALKER series was first released in 2007 for PC, it's a first-person-shooter survival horror game set in an alternate version of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. It shows a world where a second nuclear disaster took place at the site, turning the world around it into a radioactive and mutated wasteland where monsters untold walked the ground.

A pair of other STALKER titles released in 2008 and 2009 furthered the story and established the series as a cult hit.

An official STALKER 2 was initially announced for 2012, but it was unfortunately canceled that year, we then heard nothing from it until 2018 when the game was announced to be using the new Unreal Engine 5.

It was delayed from its initial release date in December 2022 due to the war in Ukraine, but hopes are high that it’ll reach us sometime in 2023.