The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series may move into the house that built Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, if a new report proves accurate. Ukranian blogger-marketer Sergey Galyonkin--who reportedly accurately predicted the demise of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 earlier this year--now claims in a new blog entry that Bethesda has acquired the rights to develop and publish a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. title. Will the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise live on at Bethesda?

Galyonkin writes (via Google Translate) that he has heard from a "very reliable source" that GSC Game World CEO Sergei Grigorovich has not sold the brand to Bethesda entirely, but will allow the publisher to develop a game set in the action-shooter universe.

Under the reported stipulations of the deal, Bethesda has picked up the rights to a game, with Grigorovich holding on to the rights for everything else (books, movies, and merchandise), though that could change.

A Bethesda representative told GameSpot, "we don't comment on rumors and speculation."

Earlier this year, developer GSC Game World was shut down, with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 being canceled outright, despite efforts to keep the project alive. A spin-off studio--Vostok Games--rose from the ashes, and is now working on Survarium, a near-future game coming to the PC next year.

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are centered around Chernobyl, which suffered a nuclear reactor meltdown in 1986. In the original game, the town is subjected to a second dose of nuclear fallout, spawning a rash of hideously mutated monsters. GSC Game World released two follow-ups to the original game: Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat.