![Escape From Tarkov Players Really Hate Its New Special Edition [Update: Battlestate Backs Down]](https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design10.jpg?quality=75&w=640&h=360&crop=1)
Update 29/4/24 3:10 PM AEST: Battlestate CEO Nikita Buyanov says the company will no longer lock Escape From Tarkov‘s new PVE mode behind the $380 Unheard Edition. According to a new statement on Reddit, the mode will now be opened up to Edge of Darkness Edition owners for free, in stages. Currently, Buyanov says the company does not have server capacity to open it up to everyone with a copy of the Edge of Darkness edition right now. Further, the Unheard Edition will be rebalanced to provide more rewards for those players that still want to support the game.
You can read Buyanov’s full statement over at the game’s official subreddit.
Original piece follows below.
Escape From Tarkov fans are expressing their extreme displeasure at a newly announced edition of the game. The Unheard Edition, a new deluxe edition of the game, retails for a whopping $250 USD (or $383 AUD).
Among the myriad reasons fans are pushing back on the Unheard Edition is that it grants exclusive access to Tarkov‘s new PVE mode. It does this in defiance of a previous special edition, the Edge of Darkness package, which promised access to all future DLC. Not so, it seems. Fans that purchased the Edge of Darkness edition now have to upgrade to the Unheard Edition if they want that extra content and they are pissed.
Another bone of contention is all the exclusive bonuses that those who buy Escape From Tarkov Unheard Edition will receive. None of the other versions of the game contained significant in-game advantages, but the Unheard Edition appears to do so. One of the bonuses involved expanded storage, allowing UE players to hold onto more of the loot they find than those who haven’t paid up. They’re also getting a suite of improved skills at the beginning of a wipe and a unique buff that will keep AI scavs from taking potshots at them once they’re above level 6 rep.
Fingers were immediately pointed, calling it a “pay to win” edition of the game.
Community managers from Tarkov studio Battlestate Games have been pushing back on this, insisting that the new edition doesn’t contain DLC. The PVE mode, Battlestate asserts, is a new feature exclusive to the Unheard Edition. Players feel this is a semantic argument.
The response to the new edition has been so heated that channels in the game’s official Discord have been silence, meaning that users cannot make any new posts. The subreddit, on the other hand, is as lively as ever with moderators waiving a long-standing rule about multi posting because they’re unhappy about the situation too.
Battlestate Games posted to Twitter earlier, holding firm to the message its community managers had been passing along — the PVE mode is a unique feature of the Unheard Edition — which would seem to suggest the studio doesn’t intend to make the mode more widely available.
We’ve reached out for comment and will update if/when we hear back.
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