Whatever good faith Battlestate Games has built over Escape From Tarkov’s 6-year stint in beta is running low, as a pricey new version of the extraction shooter is causing an uproar in Tarkov‘s community.
A newly announced version of the game, “The Unheard Edition,” is available for purchase right now for a ludicrous $250 plus tax. What’s more, the new content in this edition is not included if you purchased the previously available $120 Edge of Darkness edition of the game, which promised “free access to all subsequent DLCs (Season pass).”
If you own Edge of Darkness and want the new content, most notable of which is the new persistent PvE mode, you’ll need to shell out a whopping $100 to upgrade. The community is, justifiably, in flames.
A deluge of spam hit the Escape From Tarkov Discord earlier today which reads as follows:
Since 2016, players have supported the developers by purchasing the highest edition of the game. For 8 years, we’ve been recommending this game to friends, bringing more and more players into the community. And what was the developers’ response? They’ve blown us off, refuse to comment, and only encourage those who have lost all respect for themselves and continue to pour money in. I personally had high hopes for Tarkov. In my eyes, it was a high-quality and most ambitious product on the entire market. This is unacceptable. This is selfish. This is disrespectful. You’ve disgraced yourselves completely. You’ve lost loyal players, you’ve betrayed the idea. It’s disgusting. To everyone who feels the same way – don’t be silent. Spam, make memes, spread the word wherever it’s relevant. This cannot be tolerated.
A copy and paste rallying cry attributable to Reddit user gli_sta.
To add to the sting, The Unheard Edition has clear pay-to-win elements, including pre-leveled player skills, larger player carrying capacity, increased Fence reputation, and economy bonuses like reduced costs to in-raid cash services. While it could be argued that the Gamma case from the Edge of Darkness edition was also pay-to-win, outright bonuses to player stats and the fact that AI enemies (Scavs) won’t attack players from outside 60 meters (thanks to the increased Fence reputation) is an undeniable advantage.
The largest chunk of new content, however, is the persistent PvE mode. Persistent PvE has been a much-requested feature for the game, and appeals to players who don’t want to sweat against other players, some of whom may be cheating, or who want to practice on their own. This PvE mode features co-op, but also runs on the Battlestate servers, with some players reporting wait times upwards of 6 to 12 minutes for a single player session.
This is all to say nothing of the existing single player Tarkov mod, known as SPTarkov, which has quietly grown in popularity as more players grow weary of the state of the game. This unsanctioned mod runs independently of the official game, but does require a purchased copy in order to function. Time will tell if The Unheard Edition of Escape From Tarkov will embolden Battlestate Games to take any action, as many players of the mod also balking at the $250 price tag required to try the “official” version.
