gsc game world company. Company History – GSC Game World

A detailed history of the development and origins of the largest Ukrainian game development company
“a person must study until he finds himself in life, then it’s even harmful”

GSC Game World is the most popular domestic game developer, basking in the glory not only in the territory of the former USSR, but throughout the world, mainly thanks to such projects as “S.T.A.L.K.E.R” and “Cossacks”. The company was founded back in 1995 by Sergei Konstantinovich Grigorovich, who is still its head to this day. It's funny that the name of the company contains an abbreviation of Grigorovich's surname and initials - GSC (English: Grigorovich Sergiy Constantinovich). Later, Sergei Konstantinovich admits that he came up with the name of the company long before its existence, when he was a child.

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Ukrainian Steve Jobs

Sergey Grigorovich - a person without whom GSC would not exist
Grigorovich was born in 1978, Kiev. His father was a radio technician, his mother was a journalist, but his brother also worked at GSC and even independently led the creation of “Cossacks 2”. Since childhood, Grigorovich’s dream was not game development, as everyone might think, but wealth, as he himself claimed, from which we can conclude that he is a businessman first and a game developer second. Sergei showed business acumen even at school age, when he brought a game from France and began renting it out to his classmates, thus earning his first money. But you shouldn’t think that Sergei is only interested in business, because the desire to create computer games also appeared in school, when he wrote his first programs in computer science laboratory lessons.

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From the sixth grade, he began selling computer games and various electronic goods on the market; as former colleagues say, despite his young age, he was distinguished by excessive self-confidence and arrogance. At the age of 16 he founded the GSC company. After graduating from school, he entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, from where he was expelled immediately at the winter session due to being busy with his project, later he entered the International Scientific and Technical Institute, majoring in Economics, but he did not graduate from that either, leaving his studies after the first semester, justifying this with the following words: “a person must study until he finds himself in life, then it is even harmful.” Sergei Grigorovich is the winner of the following awards: “Achievement of a lifetime”, “Pride of the country-2008” as well as “Entrepreneur of the Year” and “Innovative business ideas”, in addition, he became the youngest millionaire in Ukraine.

“My father said that you need to put all your life, all your work into your own name, so that later you have something to be proud of, and I named the company with my initials” -

Sergey Konstantinovich Grigorovich
CEO of GSC Game World

Having created his own company in 1995, Grigorovich became its general director, and later he explains why the company bears his name: “My father said that you need to put all your life, all your work into your own name, so that later you have something to be proud of, and I named the company with my initials.” At first, the company was involved in game localizations, and their record was 26 game localizations in a month. As Grigorovich argued, due to his young age and a certain style of dressing from the “shirt to guy” category, it was difficult to recruit personnel for the team, as well as to cooperate with publishers, since no one believed that such a young man could lead a large company.

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At that time, GSC employed about 15 people, often no written employment agreements were drawn up, everything was decided in words. Grigorovich knows how to inspire and motivate his people, he is characterized by a charismatic and impulsive management style, the last word is always his, which begs comparisons with Steve Jobs, later the company will employ approximately 160 employees, and their salary will average 30 thousand dollars in year.

Start of game development

After an unsuccessful attempt to create a quest, a non-commercial game was released in 1998 - "WarCraft 2000: Nuclear Epidemic", based on its own engine, which later formed the basis of “Cossacks”. The game was a remake of the legendary "WarCraft II" and was in many ways superior to the original. In 1999, Grigorovich presented it at an exhibition to the creators of the original “Warcraft” in the hope of joint cooperation. The plans were for GSC employees to create the third part of the Warcraft series of games, but the Americans did not like that their developments were used without asking and the cooperation, unfortunately, did not take place, despite the fact that the Ukrainians had a more powerful engine for the game. In early 1999, the company made it available for free download on the Internet. "WarCraft 2000", while simultaneously working on graphics and models for the project "DoomCraft", which is closed after six months. At the same time, development begins "Kazakov".

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Cossacks: European Wars

The first game that brought serious success to the company
In 2001 GSC Game World releases a real-time strategy game called "Cossacks: European Wars"- the first game that brought the company success, and soon recognition throughout the world. The project had three types of games: campaigns, single missions, missions on random maps. In the company mode, it was possible to play for 4 different countries taking part in various historical events; a choice of storylines was provided for: England, France, Russia and Ukraine. During the development of the game, the developers primarily relied on creating something native Ukrainian. Grigorovich was only 19 years old at that time and he wanted to create something patriotic, for this reason "Cossacks" were published in Ukrainian, and the company even demanded that the Russian version not be published in Ukraine, but in the end the Russian version still sold better, and Grigorovich himself admitted the mistakes of his youth, saying that such an act was not professional.

The success of the game was also influenced by its name, because it turned out that the word “Cossacks” in Europe is the same brand as the word samurai is for us. The Cossacks, primarily the Don Cossacks, were well remembered there from the time of Napoleon.

Later, two additions to the game will be released, the first - "Cossacks: The Last Argument of Kings", where two more countries will be added compared to the original - Bavaria and Denmark, as well as 5 new story campaigns, and in 2002 a second addition called - "Cossacks: War Again", which, compared to the original, will include two more new countries, namely Hungary and Switzerland, thus, the game will already have 20 playable countries.

Venom. Codename: Outbreak

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Conquest of America
How the Cossacks conquered the USA

Also in 2002, together with the above-mentioned addition to "To the Cossacks", a game called “Conquest of America” is released - these are still the same Cossacks, but only the game takes place in America. The events that unfolded in "The Conquest of America" cover several centuries, from the expedition of Christopher Columbus to the War of Independence. The game had 12 nations, 6 types of resources we extracted, as well as 6 story campaigns for different countries, which with the release of the add-on "The Conquest of America: The Quest for El Dorado" became 8. The game received good reviews from gaming publications, on average its score was 7 out of 10, many believed that this was the best strategy released by the company G.S.C. at that time.

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Exit "Hover Ace" And "FireStarter"

In 2003, the company released two games, a racing arcade "Hover Ace" and 3D-action "FireStarter".

"Hover Ace"- this is an arcade combat race with action elements, racing competitions took place on various planets, you could even drive on Mars, you could destroy your opponents from different guns attached to the vehicle. The game had 16 race tracks, 6 game modes and a huge number of different guns. The project was warmly received, but there weren’t enough stars in the sky, it’s certainly not a masterpiece, but just good entertainment for a couple of evenings, and now such graphics make people laugh.

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Approximately the same words can be said about "FireStarter". The plot of the game took place in 2010, where a virtual reality machine called FireStarter is infected with a virus, causing it to go crazy and become especially dangerous, and the player, in turn, having found himself in this virtual reality had to survive. The gameplay boiled down to the fact that the main character found himself on a closed level, while fighting off crowds of enemies. In general, no one was expecting the game, as quietly as it came and went, it’s unlikely that anyone will remember it now.

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Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
Continuation of the most patriotic game

Then in 2005, the studio released a sequel to the already cult game “Cossacks”, called "Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars". We had to go through the most famous battles of the Napoleonic era, which can generally be understood from the title of the game. The Cossacks became larger-scale and moved towards realism, several thousand units fought on the map, an element such as morale appeared, if it was low, then your squad could leave the battlefield in panic, we also had to choose one of the real-life generals and try to subjugate all of Europe. The graphics and some gameplay features underwent significant changes, for example, not all resources could be obtained on their own; they were supplied automatically after certain supply points were captured.

The graphics and some gameplay features underwent significant changes, for example, not all resources could be obtained on their own; they were supplied automatically after certain supply points were captured.

Not all old players were happy with these changes, and as a result the game received mixed reviews, although it was generally praised by gaming publications, which emphasized that the game was good, but still controversial. A year later, the addition “Cossacks II” was released. Battle for Europe”, which, by tradition, included several new companies and nations for which you were allowed to play.

Heroes of Destroyed Empires
Unsuccessful rematch

In October 2006, the company G.S.C. releases his fantasy strategy "Heroes of Destroyed Empires", which takes a kind of revenge from the story of 7 years ago, when Blizzard refused to cooperate with the Ukrainian company. It would be fair to say that this duel in absentia did not end in favor of the Ukrainians, because to the level "Warcraft 3", the project, to put it mildly, did not measure up, and was of average quality. The game was a mixture of RPG (role-playing adventure game) and strategy, and the plot told about the confrontation between the Forest People - the indigenous inhabitants of the island of Atlans, and the underground legions of the Undead. The main character was a young elf named Elhant, who was destined to become a key figure in this conflict. Considering all the shortcomings and obvious competitive inability, the game failed. By the way, it was originally planned to create as many as three parts of this project, but most likely we will never see a continuation again. In addition, the project became unprofitable due to huge costs. For example, one of five videos cost $250 thousand- more expensive than a minute of film "Lord of the Rings".

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

What would happen if the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded again?
In truth, the failure of the previous game is not so important, because a year later, on March 20, 2007, a cult game is released that will make the brand G.S.C. recognizable all over the world, and the company itself will occupy an honorable niche among the world's best developers. We are, of course, talking about "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl". The first steps towards the emergence of “Stalker” were taken back in 2000, when two programmers Oles Shishkovtsov and Alexander Maksimchuk were hired by G.S.C. After demonstrating his engine to the head of the company, the engine would later be called X-Ray. At the beginning of 2001, development of the game began, it was given a working title "Oblivion Lost". Initially, the game was not about Chernobyl at all; the original concept was a group of researchers traveling through different worlds using portals. GSC presented their project at the Cannes exhibition Millia, at that time one single level was ready, called "Pyramid", but the game faced criticism and was called secondary, and therefore it was decided to change the concept in order to avoid any comparisons and accusations. And so, inspired by the Strugatsky brothers’ novel “Roadside Picnic” and the film “Stalker” directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, it was decided to create a game about the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and the game changed its name to . Having received the necessary permits from the state, the developers, consisting of four people, went to the Exclusion Zone, where they made video and photographic materials that were later included in the game. By September 2002 GSC Game World send their work to "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Oblivion Lost" to a gaming exhibition in London, where the game creates a real sensation among the press and players. Since “Stalker”, almost from the very beginning of its development, attracted the interest of players all over the world and the press, there were no problems with finding a publisher, the publishers themselves lined up in a huge line for the rights to publish this project, and in the end THQ was chosen as the publisher. The release of the game was scheduled for the fall of 2004, but due to various malfunctions, it was released already in 2007, once again changing its name to the final one "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl"

On the way to its release, the game lost a lot of initial developments and ideas, half of the players stopped believing that Stalker would be released, and the other half simply stopped waiting for it. The plot of the game takes place in a fictional universe, where on June 10, 2006 there was a second explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as a result of which the area was filled with various mutants and anomalies, and in search of treasures, stalkers began to flock to the Zone - people illegally staying in the territory, exploring alone or in groups A zone for your own profit. We had to play as a nameless stalker, nicknamed “Marked”, who, after a car crash from a lightning strike, lost his memory. He received his nickname from the merchant who saved him, due to the fact that he had a tattoo on his hand - "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.". Next, the main character had to travel around a large and dangerous world, completing various tasks and learning the main secrets. A unique system called A-Life was responsible for the artificial intelligence in the game. The uniqueness of the system was that the world really lived its own life, and did not wait for the player to throw some event in front of his eyes, groups of stalkers fought among themselves, defended camps from wild animals, died and traveled, all this happened without the participation of the player himself. player. The game had some kind of transcendental sincerity and realism; while playing it, everyone felt as if this was really happening. While relaxing by the fire, we could listen to songs with a guitar, jokes and just all sorts of news and stories from other stalkers, and Russian obscenities helped create a special atmosphere in the game. It was just a pleasure to travel around the world, without performing any tasks, adventures could not have been avoided, bandits could have attacked along the way, or we would have come to the aid of a stalker who was in a panic on the radio, begging anyone to save him from some troubles.

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In general, it ceased to be important, someone was waiting "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." or not, it was an incredible success, everyone played it, even those who had never seen anything other than Tetris heard about the project. As of March 24, 2007, the project "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." took eighth position in the sales chart for various platforms, and first among games for the PC. A year later - on February 12, 2008 - information was provided about the game's circulation of 950 thousand copies in the CIS and 700 thousand in the West. In 2008, the game will receive an addition called "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky" which will contain a large number of errors, from which it will receive a barrage of criticism. Another addition will be released in 2009 - "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat". Both expansions were huge and could easily be confused with standalone games. According to experts, sales of all parts S.T.A.L.K.E.R. amounted to about 4.5 million copies. On August 13, 2010, GSC Game World officially announces the start of development of the project "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2", which was scheduled for release in 2012, but the game never saw the light of day.

The king is dead, long live the king!

December 9, 2011 Ukrainian Internet information agency "Ukranews" published a message that Sergei Grigorovich, founder and owner of GSC Game World, decided to close the company. Development also stopped "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2", later information appeared that the rights to "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2" sold to Bethesda, but then this information was denied. No one knows exactly why the company was closed, the first said that because of problems with the authorities, the second because of Grigorovich’s dissatisfaction with Stalker 2, and the third assured everyone that Grigorovich was just tired and left, the only thing missing was the version about aliens . But all this doesn't matter anymore, because G.S.C. at the end of 2014 it opens again, the resumption of work turned out to be as unexpected and mysterious as the closure of the company 3 years ago. Having resumed work, Grigorovich states that no one closed, we just didn’t make games, he said.

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Cossacks 3
Return to the dashing 90s

The very idea of ​​creating an RTS strategy game in 2016 is controversial. At the moment, this is an almost dead and uninteresting genre of games. RTS is rather a warm memory, a relic of the past, pleasant and giving us many hours of play on my mother’s computer in childhood, but still practically gone into the depths of our subconscious. These words should be used to characterize those published on September 20, 2016. "Cossacks 3". Is this a good game? Undoubtedly! Is it worth buying? No!

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How so? If the game is good, then why not buy it? The problem is digital "3"- featured on the cover of the game. Troika - with all its appearance, is trying to prove to gamers that they are playing a “continuation of the Cossacks”. But no, it's a lie! They just rolled out to us a “remaster” of the first part of the Cossacks, and it was not technically perfect. A bunch of bugs migrated straight from the first part of the game, still in absolutely the same form as in 2001. Of the real innovations, we can only name new story companies.

Result: Everything seems to be fine, but I can’t shake the feeling that the developers tried to deceive the players. No one would have any complaints about a game called “ Cossacks: Remastered", but here "Cossacks 3"- that's a completely different matter.

This concludes my story about the company G.S.C.- one of the world's best developers and definitely the best in the post-Soviet space.

Video version of the review (SAME TEXT IF YOU'RE LAZY TO READ):

1 part

part 2

GSC Game World (from the English Grigorovich Sergej Constantinovich) is a company from Ukraine, best known as a developer of computer games. Location - Kyiv. In 2004, the company also became a publishing house - GSC World Publishing.

Beginning of work

Founded in 1995 by a group of young enthusiasts led by Sergei Grigorovich, who still heads it today. We were the first in Ukraine to begin translating PC games into Russian. Due to objective reasons, this activity was initially illegal, but brought considerable benefits to the Ukrainian and Russian “computer” community. First of all, this was reflected in the creation and maintenance of high awareness of players and programmers regarding the industry mainstream. For example, GSC’s translations of such hits as “Duke Nukem 3D” by George Broussard and Todd Ripplodge and “Blood” by Nick Newhard have become textbooks. In addition, GSC programmers hacked the engine of the legendary game “WarCraft” by Samwise Didier (Blizzard Entertainment), introducing a number of significant improvements to it.

The downside of such “guerrilla” activity by Grigorovich and his comrades was that the company’s first few attempts to enter into legal partnerships with top developers on equal terms were met with their cold misunderstanding of the peculiarities of the post-Soviet market and ... indignation at the audacity of “these Russians.” (For example, when translating “Duke Nukem 3D”, the hero of the game proudly says in the finale: “I am Sergei Grigorovich, a first-year student at the Moscow National Technical University!”...)

First hit

However, such a reaction from the “immortals” only pushed GSC to create an independent product. Confidence in the correctness of their path increased energy, and the “Cossacks” series of games brought GSC real fame and, without exaggeration, national recognition.

Structure of GSC Game World

A company, as, say, in the film industry, is structurally composed of several creative groups, each working on its own game, and “service” services common to all (public relations, testing, sales, etc.).

Around the company

No matter what PR workers in the company itself or in the gaming press say, the fate of GSC is far from ideal, and much of it is far-fetched. This is because creating games is also like a game. This, apparently, is the general specificity of creative production. In the “behind the scenes”, as usual, history will sort itself out, but it is worth noting several positive aspects. For example, after the successful release of the Venom game, disagreements arose between the development team and GSC management. Laurels or money were not divided, but only the ensuing breakup led to the birth of another new, independent company.

Or, let’s say, the major project S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was made over the course of about five years. This caused irritation, bewilderment, and disappointment in the gaming world. But, in the end, after the game was released, this became completely unimportant, since, as it turned out, there is a time for everything.

Released games
Venom. Codename: Outbreak
Cossacks: European Wars
Cossacks: The Last Argument of Kings
Cossacks: War again
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
Cossacks II: Battle for Europe
Conquest of America
American Conquest: The Quest for Eldorado
Alexander
Heroes of Destroyed Empires
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

At the end of last week it appeared online that the studio GSC Game World, which officially suspended work at the end of 2011, is returning to the living list and working on a new “old school” project. In an attempt to get into the spirit of the old school, we contacted representatives of the revived Kyiv studio, and also fantasized about which project from the portfolio of the creators of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. most suitable for the role of the next game. We talked about this with PR manager and studio veteran Valentin Eltyshev.

Here is a list of the most important facts that we were able to learn from the conversation:

• The development of the new project is led by the brother of the company founder Sergei Grigorovich - Evgeniy. Before that, he served as project manager for “Cossacks 2” and “Heroes of Destroyed Empires.” Sergey himself acts as director of GSC and is not involved in game development
• The new game has been in development for more than a year and a half, is close to the alpha version stage and, according to Valentin, “even already a little in alpha”
• The exact number of developers is not disclosed, but it is known that at least a third of them are GSC veterans, and newcomers came to the company not from the street, but from other projects
• However, neither representatives of 4A Games nor other ex-GSC from the Vostok Games studio were invited to the new-old company
• The announcement of the new project will take place very soon

What exactly the Kyiv studio is announcing is still unknown. Perhaps it will be something completely new. However, we decided to take a look back at some of GSC's standout titles from the last 15 years and see which game might be the perfect candidate for a triumphant comeback, and why.

Cossacks

Why yes? A true old-school real-time strategy game with a historical twist. Games in this genre are rarely released these days, so dedicated fans are probably hungry. People who were fond of “Cossacks” at the beginning of the century have now become adults, solvent and will probably not mind indulging in nostalgia. In addition, for a patriotically minded studio, this is an opportunity to express its position on Ukrainian-Russian relations

Why not? It is unknown how many devoted fans of hardcore fast strategy games actually remain. The attention of the younger generation is hopelessly distracted by DotA, LoL and similar projects, while adults have the Total War and StarCraft series at their disposal

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Why yes? GSC's highest-grossing and famous game, which brought it worldwide fame.

Why not? Problems with the development of the second part of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. became one of the key reasons for the closure of GSC. Many of the people who worked on the original games now work for other companies, which often make similar games (see Survarium)

Venom: Codename Outbreak

Why yes? A tactical shooter with the tense atmosphere of X-Com and a plot in the spirit of Heinlein’s “The Puppeteers”: aliens land on Earth, take up residence in human bodies and begin to take over the world. For its time, the game had amazing graphics and a number of interesting discoveries: for example, you could search for hidden enemies by sound, and the special forces heroes themselves wore high-tech suits in the style of Crysis

Why not? Few people remember the game. Ideas that were innovative in 2001 are now implemented in dozens of different games

Heroes of Destroyed Empires

Why yes? Almost like “Cossacks”, only with a serious role-playing element and in a fantasy setting. “Heroes” was planned as a trilogy, but then the studio became interested in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and, apparently, there was no time for that. Now there is a reason to continue what we started

Why not? It's hard to explain to a new generation of players why we need RPG/strategy hybrids in a world where Dota 2 already exists

Firestarter

Why yes? A shooter with tower defense mechanics and the spirit of punk rock: the near future, an ominous virtual reality program and a number of arenas, in each of which you need to hold out for a certain time, fighting off crowds of enemies; starring the best people: a metrosexual cowboy, a cyberwoman and the four-armed paratrooper Kolya

Why not? To be honest, we haven't figured out why not: the concept looks great. Unless there are so many shooters made and being made today that you can’t get lost among them unless you have the word S.T.A.L.K.E.R. In the title

Finally, we asked Valentin if their relationship with the Russian fan community has changed - after all, the relationship between our countries at the time of the closure of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. project. 2 have changed a lot, and not for the better. The answer was more than diplomatic: “We will be very glad to see all fans from any part of the world - America, Russia - it doesn’t matter... You are making a game so that people like it, and not to introduce your political views into it... We do not share our audience by nationality. We do not put political messages and ideas into our new project... Our audience is just people who want to play good games - and this is the most important thing"

In February 1999, at the Millia exhibition in Cannes, a group of suspicious individuals appeared, speaking English with a terrible accent. The group demonstrated its game project WarCraft 2000 - a remake of the legendary Warcraft 2, and demonstrated not to anyone, but to itself. This is how the world learned about the Kyiv studio GSC Game World, which gave it two series: “Cossacks” and “Stalker”. In Cannes, the studio faced a complete failure - “Bliz” abandoned the game, and a group of people returned home to finish a much larger project, which, as it turned out later, would make the company a key player in the CIS market.

School is no problem

The name GSC Game World is inextricably linked with CEO Sergei Grigorovich, who was barely 16 years old at the time the studio was founded. Imagine the surprise of people when they were interviewed by a young man who had barely graduated from school. But many of them were already seriously bearded, and some, like Andrei Prokhorov (the founder of the company), worked as aircraft designers.

Having assembled a team of 15 people and packed it into a two-room apartment, Grigorovich led the newly created studio into a bright future. The desire for success was not hampered by either the first failures or the poor financial situation of the company. In 2001, GSC released its first "golden calf", "Cossacks", which became the main competitor to the then brilliant Age of Empires.

In the same year, the shooter Venom came out of the studio, in which the player was supposed to control two soldiers at once. The shooter turned out to be fun, playful, but... a failure. Two years later, another GSC Game World experiment was released - the Hover Ace hovercraft race, the fate of which was approximately the same as the fate of Venom. After this, Grigorovich and Co. decided to stop pampering and, rolling up the sleeves of their tweed jackets, got down to strategy. By 2004, the studio released two good ones: “The Conquest of America” (something like “Cossacks”, but with Indians and Europeans) and “Alexander” - the first game in our open spaces, which was created under a film license. Sandwiched between these two projects is the adrenaline-fueled online shooter FireStarter, which is generally decent, but not up to the level of UT and Quake.

Picnic on the side of Chernobyl

What about Stalker, you ask? And they started making Stalker back in 2000, when a group of unknown programmers came to Grigorovich with their work. By 2002, one level “Pyramid” was ready, which the developers themselves called a clone. However, by 2003, “Stalker” had acquired the features of a nuclear mixture from the Chernobyl zone and “Roadside Picnic” by the Strugatskys. Having chosen the then-reputable company as a publisher, the team sculpted their main brainchild at an accelerated pace and in 2007, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl finally appeared on the shelves. Realizing that they hit the jackpot, GSC Game World immediately began to build on their success, resulting in the appearance of two more games in the series: Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat.

Decay

Already in 2009, after the release of Call of Pripyat, it became clear that the capabilities of the X-Ray engine had exhausted itself. According to the creators, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was supposed to be released on a completely new engine, which was created to replace X-Ray. However, the team's plans never came true. In December 2011, 10 months after Ernst & Young recognized Sergei Grigorovich as “entrepreneur of the year,” the director of GSC Game World gathered studio employees for the shortest planning meeting in the company’s history: “I decided to stop developing Stalker.” Farewell” - this phrase marked the end of one of the most popular series in the CIS. The result of Grigorovich's demarche was the disintegration of the team, the cessation of all work and the exodus of most employees to the Vostok studio, where the idea of ​​​​a shooter was born.

The attraction of former GSC employees to the topic of post-apocalypse turned out to be a fundamental thing. Back in 2006, after an internal conflict, several key programmers left the company, who subsequently founded 4A Games, the studio responsible for the appearance of the cult shooter Metro 2033. Thus, both fragments of GSC began to do what they were doing before the collapse, that is, create dark, depressing worlds with an emphasis on . GSC Game World itself unexpectedly revived in 2015 with the series that gave it fame - “Cossacks”.