{"id":12256,"date":"2026-07-27T16:57:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=12256"},"modified":"2026-07-27T22:12:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:42:44","slug":"stalker-2s-huge-free-2-0-update-and-its-first-major-story-expansion-have-a-joint-release-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/stalker-2s-huge-free-2-0-update-and-its-first-major-story-expansion-have-a-joint-release-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Stalker 2&#8217;s Huge Free 2.0 Update and Its First Major Story Expansion Have a Joint Release Date"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Stalker 2 not only has a release date for its first major story expansion, but its huge free 2.0 update.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Ukraine developer GSC Game World announced that Stalker 2: Cost of Hope is set for PC, Xbox Series X and S, and PlayStation 5 on August 20, 2026. Here\u2019s the official blurb:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The longstanding conflict between the Zone\u2019s leading factions \u2014 Duty and Freedom \u2014 takes a dramatic turn. As tensions rise and the fragile peace between them begins to unravel, the fate of the Zone hangs in the balance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope Screenshots<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/stalker-2s-huge-free-2-0-update-and-its-first-major-story-expansion-have-a-joint-release-date.gif\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">In Cost of Hope, players once again step into the role of Stalker 2 protagonist Skif \u2014 as a mysterious PDA signal draws him into events unfolding alongside the main game\u2019s story. GSC Game World has said to expect dozens of hours of content.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The 2.0 update, meanwhile, upgrades the game to a new version of Unreal Engine 5 (from 5.1 to 5.5.4). This brings new content and improvements, GSC Game World promised. Admittedly, that\u2019s not a lot to go on, but the developer promised to deliver more information soon.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">After a series of understandable delays, Stalker 2 launched on PC and Xbox Series X and S in November 2024, as well as on Game Pass. It was released on PlayStation 5 a year later, in November 2025. Stalker 2 was a sales success, hitting 1 million copies in two days. It has so far surpassed 6 million players.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/stalker-2s-huge-free-2-0-update-and-its-first-major-story-expansion-have-a-joint-release-date.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/stalker-2s-huge-free-2-0-update-and-its-first-major-story-expansion-have-a-joint-release-date.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/stalker-2s-huge-free-2-0-update-and-its-first-major-story-expansion-have-a-joint-release-date.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/stalker-2s-huge-free-2-0-update-and-its-first-major-story-expansion-have-a-joint-release-date.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-12256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-49","tag-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12258,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12256\/revisions\/12258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}