The owner of GSC Game World, the somewhat mysterious rich man Maksym Krippa, in a rare interview with Forbes Ukraine announced that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, one month after release, has recouped all costs and is now profitable.
Maksym Krippa is fairly unknown and he operates mostly behind the scenes, throwing lots of money at various projects through different companies he owns – including GSC Game World. In the interview with Forbes Ukraine, he says that he has invested a lot of money in the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, but would not give an exact amount other than “Of course, it’s tens of millions of dollars”.
GSC Game World is not Krippa’s only connection to the gaming industry, as in 2022 he bought Natus Vincere, Ukraine’s most prominent e-sports organisation, which has teams in Counter-Strike, DOTA 2 and PUBG.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was released for Xbox Series X/S, PC and Game Pass on 20 November and after just two days, it reached 1 million copies sold.