Escape from Tarkov devs lash out as rival game tries to poach players

Escape from Tarkov developer Battlestate Games has lashed out at a rival game trying to use its recent PvE and pay-to-win DLC controversy to poach players.

Escape from Tarkov maker Battlestate Games lashed out on social media at rival Arena Breakout Infinite for trying to poach its players. The developer’s X account posted a screenshot of an Arena Breakout Infinite post about taking in “homeless shooter looter” players with the caption: “Have a nice 20-minute adventure in the blatant plagiarist game.”

The post from the Arena Breaking Infinite social media account was a shot at BSG for its recent edition announcement, which has the Escape from Tarkov community up in arms. The controversy is over an announcement of a new edition that costs $250 and features a new PvE mode along with what the players call pay-to-win elements.

Players also say they are entitled to the new content for free as the developer said if they purchased the season pass from the previous edition, they would get all future DLC for free.

BSG has since pushed back against the community, which has caused a backlash with people sending bots into the Escape from Tarkov Discord to repeatedly spam the same message.

Responses to the Battlestate Games post have been less than cordial as players and content creators are all jumping at the chance to call the developer out.

20 minutes is still 10 times as long as I last against cheaters in your game 👍 you're doing great

— DrLupo (@DrLupo) April 25, 2024

“20 minutes is still 10 times as long as I last against cheaters in your game you’re doing great,” streamer Benjamin ‘DrLupo’ Lupo said in response to BSG’s post.

“Oh, so you DO know how to communicate,” another popular response said.

Escape from Tarkov is expected to have not only Arena Breakout Infinite, which is going into its close beta on Steam in May, but also Gray Zone Warfare and Hawked come out as direct competitors in 2024.

At the time of writing, the post has over 2,000 replies and almost 700,000 views. Instead of dissuading players from giving one of the new titles a chance, Battlestate Games may have just provided them with another reason to jump ship.