Overview
- GSC Game World announced on Monday, July 27 that Cost of Hope will release on August 20, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC storefronts including Steam, GOG and Epic Games Store.
- The expansion puts players back in the role of Skif in a parallel story that focuses on rising tensions between the Duty and Freedom factions and adds two new regions, the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the Iron Forest.
- GSC says Cost of Hope offers dozens of hours of content with branching choices that can affect the Zone, and the DLC will be a paid add‑on while being bundled into the game’s Deluxe and Ultimate editions.
- Update 2.0 will launch the same day as a free update for all owners, moving the base game to a newer Unreal Engine 5 build and targeting specific stability, performance and gameplay improvements.
- The release follows two years of patches and free content after the base game’s troubled 2024 launch and signals GSC’s push to re-engage players though the engine overhaul and a planned roadmap of further expansions.