Earlier in the year it was leaked that the second game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series had its production canceled, a rumor that was later verified by the development studio, GSC Game World. Now, the same guy who tipped off the sad news has revealed not only that the game could be back, but that one of the world's largest game studios could be behind it.
According to Sergey Galyonkin, Director of Marketing for 1-C SoftKlab Ukraine, Bethesda Softworks has acquired rights to produce a single game for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise. This would come as a huge surprise given S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is supposed to be dead in the water, but it's likely that Bethesda saw a good investment opportunity and jumped at the chance. It probably helped that the series shares some similar design philosphies with Fallout 3, one of Bethesda's flagship games.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl was one of the best PC exclusives of 2007, but was hampered by its limited resources. Bethesda, with its large footprint in the industry, could empower a sequel with all of the marketing and development requirements it needs.
A multiplatform release is the first thing that comes to mind when considering what such a move would entail, but on the negative side it'd be a shame to see the next release hosted by the buggy and unreliable Gamebryo engine. On the PC side of things, modability would be a fantastic addition to the scary, survivalist world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I know I'd play a Day Z stylized mod in a heartbeat.
