It might be a good idea for that Escape from Tarkov developers Battlestate Games to hire a PR person. Arguably, the team’s current approach of making terrible decisions as hard as possible isn’t hugely good for its reputation. Seen last month a new PvE mode for the first-person shooter behind a $250 paywall– made even worse by having previously sold a $150 Edge of darkness edition that had promised all future DLC, but reneged on it all halfway through by offering a confusing $50 upgrade for those affected. Except a whole group of people had already used up the entire $100. How can this situation get any worse?
How about, instead of paying those people back the $50 they clearly deserve, Battlestate could to hold that money, and give them a voucher worth $50 worth of in-game content?! But wait! It gets even dumber.
The amount of money players play with Tarkov being willing to spend is pretty amazing. People who bought the eight-year-old game when perpetual Early Access first started have been buying it again and again ever since, presumably out of loyalty and a desire to support a project they love. However, April’s clusterfuck wiped out a huge amount of goodwill, as people who had already paid the most astonishingly large amount of money to guarantee access to all future DLC had assumed – not unreasonably – that this would also include newly added features. So a response of “It’s not DLC” (actual quote) wasn’t exactly the customer support they were looking for.
The situation is incredibly messed up, so Battlestate eventually backed off to the extent they said PvE would possibly to be included Edge of darkness owners, it only happens “in waves,” with no set deadline for when this might happen. Those who still wanted to wait in line were first told they had to upgrade to (or buy outright) the $250 The unheard edition, and of course many did. Days later this became known EoD owners would now have to pay “only” $50 for the upgrade, despite still fully believing they had already purchased the Ultimate Edition of the game.
And for all those who had paid the $100 in the meantime? In any functioning universe, Battlestate would have said, “Of course we will refund those who paid double,” an act that would still be a struggle to call decent, considering that EoD owners should have been fully entitled to the update in the first place. This isn’t that universe, and instead the company is offering people a one-time $50 voucher Tarkov content, which amazingly comes with ridiculous strings attached!
A statement posted on X.com (formerly a less hellish social media site) from Battlestate explains the excessive restrictions. “Please note,” it sneaks into the middle of the paragraph, “that you can only use the offset once: if the cost of all the expansions you select is less than the offset, the remaining balance cannot be used later.”
Yes, not only do people not get the money they overpaid, but if they want to buy a $30 extension, they can say goodbye to the other $20. And if you’re wondering why, for example, Steam doesn’t get involved: Tarkov remarkably not on Steam, but sold directly by Battlestate.
It’s unbelievable that a situation can be handled so poorly. We reached out to Battlestate to ask why all this is happening when we are simply honoring the honor Edge of darkness edition and refunding people their money would do so much to restore the game’s damaged reputation.
Still, as a nice treat, players will get two extra lines on their stock size, worth a whopping $3, so that will probably calm things down.
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