S.T.A.L.K.E.R heading for next gen consoles?

Eagerly-anticipated PC shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow Of Chernobyl could be ported to next generation consoles, GSC Gameworld's head of communications Oleg Yavorsky has revealed.

During an E3 presentation of how the game is looking running under Direct X9, Yavorksy said: "We'd like to focus on the PC version for now, and after that we'll think of the possibilities of porting it to something else - we'll see."

Asked if it would work well on the next gen consoles such as the PS3 and Xbox 2 he responded: "Yes, yes, quite possibly," and went on to rule out any chance of the post-Chernobyl disaster-based FPS of appearing on the current generation of consoles.

But with the next round of consoles not expected until 2006 at the earliest, there's plenty of time for GSC to begin the task of getting the game up and running on next gen tech so don't be surprised to see a STALKER port among the early titles released on the next round of console tech.

However, the chances of the game meeting THQ's rather optimistic September launch date appear to be nil, with Yavorksy admitting the game wouldn't be ready by then, and that it was now targeting a pre Christmas launch.

For the full preview of STALKER: Shadow Of Chernobyl, head here.