A fire has destroyed part of Stalker developer GSC Game World's offices in Prague.
22.08.2023 - 16:55 / gamedeveloper.com / New
Global development company Virtuos has opened a new studio in Prague to expand its engineering capabilities.
Virtuos Labs Prague has become the fourth studio in the company's "Labs" network and will focus on delivering networking, UI, mobile, and optimization solutions.
The company said partners will be able to lean on the nascent studio for support in online services, software development and operations, UI implementation in games, co-development of mobile games and porting, and CPU and GPU performance optimization.
The studio will be overseen by Jan Herodes, who has amassed over 15 years of experience in mobile game production and live ops working at companies including Disney Interactive Studio and Bohemia Interactive.
"Czechia is a rising global game development hub and Prague is at the center of its growth. This is supported by a rapidly growing talent pool, thanks to game development-focused programs at local universities," said Herodes in a press release.
"I am certain that Virtuos Labs Prague can benefit from and contribute to the young and capable talent pool, and provide outstanding technical services to our valued clients."
Virtuos Labs Prague is currently staffing up and hopes to expand to 20 employees by the end of 2023. It will contribute to a range of projects alongside Virtuos' other Labs studios in Lyon, Montpellier, and Warsaw, including the development of a performance tracking and automated testing platform and a bespoke procedural cinematics tool.
The news comes a few months after Virtuos, best known as support studio, revealed it will be developing its own titles under the Virtuos Originals banner.
Speaking to Game Developer back in June, Virtuos said the initiative will allow its teams to begin creating their own projects to flex their creative muscles and experiment with new ideas.
A fire has destroyed part of Stalker developer GSC Game World's offices in Prague.
The developer of Stalker 2, GSC Game World, has had a fire at in their offices.
There was plenty of excitement when a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sequel was announced by GSC Game World. Nobody could have predicted just how tumultuous the development cycle would be. The game has faced numerous delays due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine which forced the team to quickly relocate from Kyiv to Prague.
Just weeks after Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl finally solidified its Q1 2024 release window and the team saw its hard work hacked and leaked, the survival horror shooter has suffered another set back: a devastating fire.
GSC Game World has hit a number of hurdles during the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and recently suffered another setback. As reported by Vortex (via @HazzadorGamin on Twitter), the offices of GSC Game World in Prague – where the studio was forced to relocate part of its development team due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – recently suffered damages from a fire.
A fire has destroyed part of the offices of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World.
As reported by Czech publication Vortex, on September 7, Stalker 2 developer GSC Game World suffered a fire at the Prague office it moved into last year following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. GSC Game World employees have stated that no one was hurt in the incident, but one of the three floors occupied by the dev sustained heavy damage and requires «full restoration.»
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Maksym Yanchyi, lead Xbox programmer on Stalker 2, lets out a deep sigh. It’s not the first time Mak, as he’s called by his colleagues, steadies himself before revealing the horrifying difficulties the developers of one of the most anticipated shooters of 2024 face on a daily basis. Right now he’s talking about Russian hackers and their ongoing attempts to breach GSC Game World’s security systems, the constant harassment, and even death threats that have come from the theft of personal information.
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