Those who were looking forward to entering “The Zone” in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl on April 28 got a bit of bad news today. GSC announced via Twitter that the company will be pushing the games release back about seven months to December 8 of this year. GSC didn’t cite any specific cause for the delay, but they did say that they feel the extra time is needed to get S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 into a properly polished state.

In their statement, GSC mentioned that they believe development should take as long as necessary and that putting out a project the size of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 requires very thorough testing. Hopefully, they’ll be able to do just that and deliver a home run to fans rather than getting themselves into a Cyberpunk 2077-style situation.