Escape from Tarkov Players Will Need To Re-Purchase Game If They Want To Play On Steam

This news comes ahead of the popular shooter finally exiting Early Access—a state that it’s been in for almost eight years now—and entering its full release. Since the start of its beta testing phase in July 2017, Escape from Tarkov has had over 400 updates. The 1.0 version is set to release on November 15 of this year. While the game coming to Steam might be exciting news for some as the game approaches this major milestone, the Steam FAQ has revealed that players will need to purchase a new version of the game to play via Steam.

The FAQ explains that “To play Escape from Tarkov through Steam, you must purchase any edition of the game on Steam. You can then link your existing Battlestate Games account with an active copy of the game to your Steam profile. If the editions differ, it will automatically use the higher edition of the two when launching the game through Steam.” The FAQ also explains that all players, regardless of launcher, will be on the same servers. Effectively, this means that the main thing most players will be missing out on if they don’t purchase the game through Valve’s storefront are features like Steam achievements. As of writing this, there is currently no price set on the Escape from Tarkov’s Steam page. 

Fans have not taken this news well. As IGN reports, several are pointing out how this process of linking a pre-existing account means people are only paying to play the game through Steam and not much else. Neither the FAQ nor Battlestar Games offers any reasoning behind this decision, or, as is also pointed out in the IGN piece, why Steam keys weren’t offered to people who already bought the game.

If you don’t care about Steam features, playing Escape from Tarkov the way folks have been doing so for years now seems like it will suffice when 1.0 releases, barring any future changes. However, in an industry that’s increasingly finding new ways to extract more money from players outside of a base purchase, it’s understandable that some might find this a frustrating move.