Three STALKER cosplayers were reportedly killed in Southwestern Russia, allegedly after the state security apparatus mistook them for Ukrainian spies. The deceased drew the attention of the Federal Security Service (FSB)—the main successor agency to KGB—after its intelligence indicated they possessed uniforms marked with a green wolf head insignia associated with Volya, an obscure Ukrainian ultra-right nationalist party. However, the uniforms in question were reportedly costumes based on one of the factions from the STALKER series.
The ongoing war in Ukraine had a significant impact on the video game industry following the Russian invasion of the Eastern European country back in February. Some of the world's largest game developers such as Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Crytek operate in the region, along with dozens of smaller studios, many of whom had their operations upheaved by the conflict. The Russian invasion of Ukraine consequently caused numerous delays and—more importantly—tragic loss of lives, some of which were previously committed to the game industry.
The Moscow Times reported that the FSB killed three STALKER cosplayers after mistaking them for enemy spies in the Voronezh Oblast, a region in Southwest Russia located around 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukraine border. The allegations dovetailed with a Wednesday report from state-owned Russia-1 on a Yerevan summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Moscow-led NATO equivalent. During the Armenian conference, Russian authorities said that the FSB has successfully thwarted a "sabotage" operation by SBU, Ukraine's state security apparatus.
According to the state-sanctioned account, the counter-intelligence operation resulted in three SBU casualties who were plotting an attack on regional energy infrastructure from a house in Voronezh. But The Moscow Times promptly claimed it has identified two of the three deceased as airsoft players who, while not sympathetic to Vladimir Putin's incumbent government, were merely cosplayers who'd occasionally dress up as Stalkers from the titular video game series, citing social media profiles of one Vladimir Kotovsky and Stalker Fosgen, as well as sources from the local airsoft community. The costumes depicted in the now-pulled FSB video footage from the stormed Voronezh house seem to be based on the uniforms of the Freedom faction extensively featured throughout all existing STALKER games.
STALKER series creator GSC Game World halted the development of STALKER 2 in March, subsequently sharing a video dev diary depicting some of its staffers fighting in Ukraine. The studio resumed STALKER 2 development in late May after relocating the majority of its still-working team to the Czech Republic.
This tragic news comes weeks after Remedy Entertainment revealed that one Metro Exodus developer died while fighting in Ukraine.
Source: The Moscow Times, Russia-1 (cached)