The Game Studio That Changed “Chernobyl” to “Chornobyl”: GSC and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

On November 22, 2024, the Ukrainian game studio GSC Game World announced on X (formerly Twitter) that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (Stalker 2), released two days earlier, had sold one million copies worldwide. The US industry outlet Game Developer reported this. Its setting is a fictional “Zone” modeled on the exclusion zone around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.

Where was this studio born, and what happened before the second installment came out? This article lays it out stage by stage, based on company statements and press reports.

1995, in Kyiv

The company’s official website, under “About Us,” gives its founding as 1995 and its two home bases as Kyiv (Ukraine) and Prague (Czechia). It lists “15+” titles made. According to Forbes Ukraine, founder Sergiy Grygorovych established the company in 1995 at age 16. On November 25, 2025, the company marked “30 years” in a Steam announcement.

In the same article, Forbes Ukraine writes that the studio became internationally known through two series: the historical strategy game Cossacks, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R., a first-person shooter set in a fictional world based on the Chornobyl exclusion zone.

From the First Game to the Second Installment’s Expansion

In its January 2022 announcement, GSC explained the delay by saying “these additional 7 months of development are essential to realize our vision and deliver the game in the state we want it to be” (as reported by Game Informer). In its January 2024 announcement, it wrote that feedback from playtesters showed “more time was needed on the technical side,” and in its July announcement it said it would use two months to fix “unexpected issues.”

The Old Title, the Current Title

The second game was written as “Heart of Chernobyl” around the time it was announced. The January 2022 delay announcement used this spelling too. According to PC Gamer, the title on the Steam store page changed to “Heart of Chornobyl” on March 14, 2022. The magazine writes that the company issued no explanation for the change.

“Chornobyl” is a spelling based on the Ukrainian Чорнобиль, while “Chernobyl” is based on the Russian spelling. How place names get their spelling is covered in the article on the spelling of “Kyiv”. Meanwhile, as of September 2026, the title of the first, 2007 game remains “Shadow of Chernobyl” on Steam.

What Do the Company’s Announced Figures Count?

The figures GSC has announced come in two kinds: copies sold, and number of players.

“6 million” is not a sales figure. It is a number that includes people who played via a subscription service. The development cost is the founder’s own account and not a figure that can be confirmed from the company’s financial statements.

Changes in Ownership

According to Forbes Ukraine (March 13, 2026), businessman Maksym Klippa acquired 40% of the studio in 2020 and a further 42% in 2023. In an interview with the same magazine in December 2024, Klippa said the remaining 18% was held by the founder’s younger brother, Yevhen Grygorovych, and that the founder himself was no longer a shareholder. He also said that Yevhen and Mariya Grygorovych led the completion of the second installment’s development.

According to the same magazine, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trademark is held by the Cypriot company GSC Game World Global Ltd. The founder stepped down as an investor in the Ukrainian affiliated company in September 2023, and in April 2026 wrote on his own Telegram channel that he was no longer involved with GSC or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (per Detector Media).

2022: Part of Development Moves to Prague

On February 24, 2022, the day Russia’s full-scale invasion began, GSC wrote in a Steam announcement that Russia had declared war on Ukraine, and gave a link to a Ukrainian state donation portal.

In a January 2023 announcement, GSC wrote that it had been “almost a year” since part of the team relocated to Czechia. The Ukrainian IT outlet dev.ua, citing a Wired article, reports that about 200 developers moved to Prague, that around 500 employees and their family members needed to be evacuated, and that about 130 stayed in Ukraine. The company’s current official website lists Kyiv and Prague as its two home bases.

The Game’s “Zone,” and the Actual Exclusion Zone

The game’s setting is a fictional world based on the actual exclusion zone. The real zone was established after the 1986 accident, and in 2016 a reserve was placed within it (the article on the Chornobyl reserve). The accident itself is covered in the article on the accident. Export figures for Ukraine’s IT industry are covered in the article on computer services exports.