It might be a good idea Escape from Tarkov Developer Battlestate Games hires a PR person. There’s an argument to be made that the team’s current approach of making terrible decisions as loudly as possible isn’t doing its reputation much good. Seen last month a new PvE mode for the first-person shooter hidden behind a $250 paywall– even worse since it was previously selling a $150 product Edge of Darkness Edition that promised all future DLC – but then half-broken everything by offering those affected a confusing $50 upgrade. Except a whole bunch of people had already spent the full $100. Now how could this situation be made worse?
What if Battlestate didn’t refund these people the $50 they clearly deserve? hold that money and give them a $50 voucher for in-game content?! But wait! It gets a lot dumber.
The amount of money the players have Tarkov are willing to spend is quite astonishing. People who bought the eight-year-old game when its perpetual Early Access began have continued to buy it ever since, presumably out of loyalty and a desire to support a project they love. However, April’s clusterfuck wiped out a tremendous amount of goodwill, as people who had already paid the most astounding sum to guarantee access to all future DLC assumed – not unreasonably – that this would also include newly added features . Therefore, the answer “It’s not DLC” (actual quote) wasn’t exactly the customer support they were looking for.
The situation is incredibly confusing, so much so that Battlestate finally caved to the extent they promised in PvE ultimately be included Edge of Darkness Owners, it only happens “in waves,” with no set timeline for when this might happen. Those who still wanted to join the queue were initially told they would have to upgrade to the $250 price tag (or buy it outright). The unheard edition, and of course many did. This was announced days later EoD Owners would now have to pay “only” $50 for the upgrade, even though they are still convinced that they have already purchased the ultimate edition of the game.
And for everyone who has now paid the $100? In any functioning universe, Battlestate would have said, “Of course we’ll refund those who paid double,” an action that would still be hard to call decent given that end of life The owners should have had full entitlement to the update from the outset. This is not that universe, and instead the company is offering people a one-time $50 voucher Tarkov Content that amazingly comes with ridiculous conditions!
A statement published on X.com (formerly a less hellish social media site) from Battlestate explains the outrageous restrictions. “Please note,” it says in the middle of the paragraph, “that you can only use the compensation once: if the cost of all the extensions you select is lower than the compensation, the remaining amount cannot be used later.”
Yes, not only will people not get the money they overpaid, but they can also say goodbye to the other $20 if they want to get a $30 expansion. And if you’re wondering why, for example, Steam doesn’t get involved, Tarkov Notably, it is not available on Steam but is sold directly by Battlestate.
It’s hard to believe that a situation could be handled so poorly. We reached out to Battlestate and asked why all this is happening when we’re simply honoring this Edge of Darkness Selling the edition and giving people their money back would go a long way toward restoring the game’s damaged reputation.
Still, as a nice bonus, players get two additional lines on top of their stash size, worth a whopping $3, so that will probably calm things down.
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