Stalker 2 is going to take up 180GB on your Xbox console

The highly-anticipated Stalker sequel, Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl, will take up 180GB on your Xbox console.

Though not formally confirmed by developer GSC Game World nor Microsoft – which has the survival shooter "coming first" to its Xbox Series X/S consoles ahead of Sony's PS5 –  the Xbox store listing was recently updated, indicating that to install the game, players will need around 180GB of space free (thanks, The Gamer).

While Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl may not be the worst offender in terms of hard drive space, an 180GB game is going to take up a hefty share of your storage, particularly if you have an Xbox Series S with a 512GB SSD and just 364GB of storage space for your games. 

That said, the bespoke internal NVMe SSD inside the Xbox Series S is specially made and are capable of loading at incredible speeds, essentially helping power those Series X games, and there's a number of external hard drive, SSD, and memory card solutions to help boost your storage if you need it.

We may have been waiting a decade at this point, but Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl will finally release next year. Preorder goodies for those prepared to buy it in advance include extended campfire content, exclusive weapon skin, exclusive armor skin, and an "early bird" multiplayer badge, too.

The Stalker series has been around since 2007 courtesy of Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, giving fans a mature first-person shooter franchise with survival mechanics when Stalker: Call of Pripyat launched in 2009. Sequel Stalker 2 is slated to release on April 28, 2022. It was first revealed in 2010, but slipped into development hell, leading to a 12-year production cycle that even saw the game briefly canceled in 2012. 

Here are five ways Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl can improve upon GSC Game World's iconic trilogy of survival-horror shooters.

Don't forget to check out more titles to add to your mental calendar in our upcoming Xbox Series X games and upcoming Xbox One games lists.