After what has to be one of the worst days for a game studio ever, Battlestate Games has finally released a statement to address the controversy regarding the new $250 version of Escape From Tarkov. However, it likely won’t be what a lot of fans wanted to hear.
Posting on the game’s sub-Reddit, game director Nikita Buyanov announced that some of the features that are included in the $250 Unheard Edition would also be given to people who own the Edge of Darkness edition. However, the biggest addition in the form of the new PvE game mode will only be given to them for six months, then they will have to upgrade to keep playing.
“To honor the owners of the EoD version and their indelible importance and role in the EFT universe, we plan to add the following new unique features to the EoD edition,” said Buyanov in the post before going on to list the additional bonuses EoD players will get.
The list includes a lot of good bonuses for players, including; faster return of insured items, increased personal trader buying limits by 20%, increased basic PMC karma, access to unique hideout craft, increased basic charisma skill, special quest line with increased pockets side as a reward and the ability to skip two daily quests per day free of charge.
However, the not-so-positive part comes with the last two items on the list; high priority matching for EoD owners for six months and access to offline PvE for EoD owners for six months. This means that despite EoD owners being promised all future DLC, they will only be able to play the latest addition for six months before it is taken away from them and locked behind the Unheard Edition once again.
Already the community reaction to this post has been negative, with many not satisfied with this offer from Battlestate Games. It’s not hard to see why, considering there is no real justification for this not being classed as a DLC for Tarkov and given to all EoD owners as part of the season pass they purchased.
With the outrage that happened yesterday and a response from BSG that doesn’t solve the main issue people had, it seems unlikely that this controversy will end any time soon. Especially with challengers such as Arena Breakout Infinite and Gray Zone Warfare capitalizing on the backlash and building up a lot of goodwill from Tarkov fans.
