S.T.A.L.K.E.R. MMO Under Consideration; No Online Co-op or DX10 for Original, SDK Pushed Back

A massively multiplayer online title set in the universe of GSC Game World's post-apocalyptic S.T.A.L.K.E.R. under consideration, the developer has told its fans.

When questioned about the possibility of an online S.T.A.L.K.E.R. title, the company, which was recently certified as an official Xbox 360 developer, responded, "if you mean an MMOG, then we are seriously considering it."

However, the studio was adamant that cooperative multiplayer is not supported within the existing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. engine, nixing any hopes of online co-op in the current PC title (pictured above, left) and the upcoming Clear Sky (PC) prequel (pictured above, right).

"A cooperative mode is impossible, since Life Simulation would be different at each computer," it stated. "Synchronizing it would be practically not doable."

The company then noted that while Clear Sky will support DirectX 10, the original game will not be patched with DX10 functionality. "[The first S.T.A.L.K.E.R.] is a complete and finished game, which in future will only get patches, fixing discovered errors and improving multiplayer," it reasoned.

As for the planned release of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. single-player SDK, it has been delayed as the whole of the team is currently working on Clear Sky.