Irate Escape from Tarkov players nuke community Discord over new PvE mode
Battlestate GamesEscape from Tarkov players are irate with developer Battlestate Games after it announced the release of a new edition, with a new mode and a $250 price tag, as they believe they should get it for free for purchasing the season pass.
Players who purchased the previous Edge of Darkness Edition were promised future DLC content as part of paying for the season pass. The community thinks the new Unheard Edition – which comes with a heavy price tag, what they believe is pay-to-win in-game content, and the new PvE mode – falls under DLC.
After the announcement, Escape from Tarkov players invaded Battlestate Games’ community Discord with bots spamming the same message over and over in retaliation for the “selfish” and “disrespectful” decision.
“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,” multiple new members of the Discord, presumed to be bot accounts, have said.
The developer has responded to the outcry via its community manager over Discord and locked almost all chats across the server.
“DLC means additional downloadable content. PvE is a feature and a game mode. Just because you all want it to become a DLC it wouldn’t mean it is one. It’s featured game mode for the new edition of the game,” Daniel Mavlyuberdinov, Lead Community Manager at BSG for Escape from Tarkov, told players.
The Escape from Tarkov subreddit is also full of negative posts about the new edition. The forum moderation team has even forgone its rule about reposts specifically about the topic.
“Let’s start this off right – we (the mod team) are just as livid about this situation as you are… We were initially enforcing rule 8 however after an internal vote, looking into the new edition and some discussion we have all concluded that it sucks. Complain away, it’s P2W and a betrayal of players’ trust/support of this game over the years,” they said.
Battlestate Games used its official X account to also respond to the critics, saying the PvE mode is a “unique feature” only for the owners of the Unheard Edition and that it will update players on features for Edge of Darkness Edition owners.