It’s a bad time to be an Escape From Tarkov fan. Developers BattleState Games announced this week the addition of a new $250 edition of the extraction shooter, which included a full PvE version of the game, bigger pockets for PMCs in the full version, and an equippable item that will make AI-controlled Scavs less aggressive to players. A brutal survival-focused battle royale, Tarkov’s special sauce is the mix of scarcity, danger, and rare opportunity.
It’s a game where the discovery of one specific medicine makes half a dozen failed runs feel worth it, a door key is worth its weight in gold, and you’ll go through long stretches of poverty, slowly building up your stash and ekering everything you can out of suboptimal loadouts. It’s a shooter, surely, but a shooter in which every single item counts a whole lot more than it does in any other game. Extra perks didn’t sit right with many owners of the existing top-tier $150 Edge of Darkness edition-me included. That version has been available to players to buy into the closed beta since August 2016, and for its considerable price promised access to every future DLC coming to the game.
That’s the argument, at any rate, from content creators, Reddit users, and angry fans on the BattleState Games Discord server, who feel this PvE version of the game is a new DLC and thus should be handed out to EoD owners for free. BattleState Games initially denied the new mode was DLC and tried to play word games, which went down about as well as you’d expect. The backlash was absolutely furious; after a few days in the bunker, the developer half-admitted to getting it wrong, bowing to pressure in damage control mode to say that all EoD owners are going to get six months of co-op play for free-with a rather substantial catch: Battlestate can’t do this immediately because they don’t have the server capacity for everyone who’s bought the EoD edition.
As Ted Litchfield at PCG said, this is one “huge unforced error”. Then again, adding insult to injury, an attempt to placate these fans means EoD players are getting priority matchmaking and a load of new items. That means players who haven’t bought the EoD edition prior to now-so no longer on sale, by the way-are going to be relegated to longer queues for their matches. Let me make this clear: players who have purchased the standard edition of Tarkov have paid $50 for the game and are now being treated as second-class citizens. How’s that for enshittification?
The introduction of Escape From Tarkov’s $250 edition has sparked a firestorm within its community, leading to a week that can only be described as catastrophic for the goodwill BattleState Games had fostered over the years. The Fallout from this decision has been swift and severe, with the community’s backlash echoing across forums, social media, and the game’s own Discord server.
The crux of the issue lies in the perceived unfairness of the new edition.
That $250 not only buys an entire PvE version of the game but comes with some real in-game benefits, such as larger inventory pockets and the Mark of the Unheard item, which will reduce AI aggression by way more. These benefits have not sat well with the player community, especially for those who invested in the $150 Edge of Darkness edition based on promises that it would include all future DLCs. There is a strong argument here for the fact that this PvE mode qualifies as a DLC, and therefore it should be free to EoD owners-something BattleState Games’ initial denial made worse.
The community’s response was a mixture of outrage and betrayal.
Content creators, super fans, and casual players alike voiced their concerns and disappointment. The apparent olive branch offered by the developers in the form of six months of co-op play to EoD owners did little to quell the discontent, considering that said offer came out with the caveat of delayed implementation due to server capacity issues. The only half-measure that coupled with the introduction of priority matchmaking for EoD players, created a division in the community. This often made the standard edition players feel second-rate and marginalized.
The implications of these changes are far-reaching.
The appealing thing in Tarkov was that it was ruthlessly fair: everybody was operating under the same harsh conditions and within the same implacable environment. Now, with the introduction of pay-to-win elements, this balance is broken, as advantages are given to those who were able to afford the new edition. Those bigger pockets and the Mark of the Unheard item, in particular, fundamentally shift the game dynamics to make it easier for those players to survive, dominate, and thrive than others in a game that’s supposed to be balanced and hard.
It is further compounded by recent microtransactions for additional stash space and clothes that already had the community on edge. The $250 edition feels like it comes off the back of a trend that has continued to shift away from the core principles making Tarkov unique, and toward a more monetized and unequal experience. A shift which hasn’t gone unpassed by the player base, whose sentiment is clear: the game they loved is changing, and for the worse.
The question is now, going forward: Can BattleState Games recover from this debacle? Already, the developer has backpedaled on some of its stances taken in this flap. The trust has been broken, however, and that takes a bit more than concessions to mend. This is something that the community will be watching closely: whether or not more changes will be made to deal with the imbalance, how the developers can right the ship and get the game back on track to what it was supposed to be. When the 1.0 release comes later, it’s going to be a very critical moment for Tarkov and its developers, and yet to be seen whether they can regain their players’ confidence.
Meanwhile, the $250 edition of Escape From Tarkov has been some lesson in how quickly years of goodwill can be eroded. Community backlash is a testament to the passion and investment of its players and a hard reminder to developers everywhere: fairness and transparency are everything in game design. Hopefully, in the future, Tarkov can find its way back to the heart of what made it great, and BattleState Games can rebuild the trust that has been lost. Only time will tell if the scars from this catastrophic week will heal or if they will mark the beginning of the end for a once-beloved title.
