You’ll be going back to the zone soon, but what time exactly will you be leaving on release day? We’ll let you know.

On Wednesday, 15 years after its predecessor, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl will be released, allowing players to immerse themselves in the dangerous zone of the survival shooter again.

We’ll let you know when you can get started on which platform and whether there’s a preload for you.

Release of Stalker 2

• Release date: November 20, 2024
• Time: 5:00 p.m. local time

Stalker 2 will be released simultaneously on all platforms in the late afternoon. There are no time zone differences either, so becoming a resident of New Zealand via a VPN won’t let you play earlier either.

Is there a preload?

Yes, but only for the version from the Microsoft Store If you play Stalker 2 on the Xbox Series X or S, you can already download the game from the store.

The same applies to the version included in Microsoft’s Game Pass You can currently pre-install this. However, this only applies to the standard edition from the subscription; other editions can be pre-ordered but not pre-downloaded.

There will be no preload on the other platforms, as developer GSC Game World revealed on the official Discord server of the game.

Anearly accessfor pre-orders or buyers of one of the special editions will not be offered either. By the way, if you are missing a release for the PS5: So far, there is no information about a release of Stalker 2 on Sony’s console.

Download size

The preloads on Microsoft are about 150 GB in size. Steam requires 160 GB of disk space for the PC version.

You can also find our story recap of the three predecessors there, so you are equipped with all the story info for the release.