GSC Game World has refuted claims made by its former studio founder Sergiy Grygorovych about how Microsoft handled the timed exclusivity for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl on Xbox. In interviews, Grygorovych previously said Microsoft paid a large sum to secure the game as a timed Xbox exclusive, and he further characterized the payment as exceeding the game’s development cost, presenting it as a deal intended to keep the game off PlayStation 5 for about a year.
Multiple outlets report that GSC now disputes those assertions, stating they do not reflect the actual facts. The dispute centers on the accuracy of Grygorovych’s characterization of the exclusivity arrangement and the scale of payments relative to development expenses. Grygorovych left GSC Game World in 2023, and the new response from the studio addresses his public statements rather than providing detailed figures in the reports summarized here.
Across coverage, the core points are that Grygorovych made specific claims about Microsoft’s exclusivity payment, and that GSC Game World has published a counterstatement rejecting those claims as incorrect.
