Escape From Tarkov's $250 PvE Mode Will Eventually Be Free For Edge Of Darkness Owners

Summary

• It's been a very controversial few days for Escape from Tarkov following the announcement of the Unheard Edition.
• This $250 version of the game was said to include a bunch of perks and access to an exclusive PvE mode.
• Tarkov's developers have now backtracked on that by saying that the mode will eventually be free for all Edge of Darkness owners.

Escape from Tarkov developer Battlestate Games has somewhat walked back on the $250 Unheard Edition's exclusive PvE mode by stating that it'll eventually be accessible for Edge of Darkness owners.

If you're an Escape from Tarkov fan, then the last few days have likely been a bit of a whirlwind for you. Earlier this week, Battlestate Games revealed an expensive new edition of Escape from Tarkov called the "Unheard Edition", which cost $250 and included several features that many called out as being "pay to win", such as more slots on the flea market, a new melee weapon, and an enhanced stash.

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The "pay-to-win" items, combined with the high asking price, were controversial enough, but the real kicker was a new PvE game mode with persistent progression that was said to be exclusive to the Unheard Edition. To make matters worse, this mode wouldn't be accessible to those who bought some of Tarkov's expensive previous editions, like the recently delisted Edge of Darkness edition that cost $100.

Battlestate Games Is Reversing Course On The PvE Mode, Kind Of

t's been a very tense atmosphere in the Escape from Tarkov community since that announcement, something that wasn't made much better when Battlestate COO Nikita Buyanov took to the game's subreddit to reveal that Edge of Darkness owners would be getting some new perks, including six months access to the Unheard Edition's exclusive PvE mode.

It seems that was nowhere near enough to calm down the fanbase, though, as a new statement from Buyanov has just been shared on Reddit that has Battlestate reversing course on its previous plans. The message starts by doubling down on the new game mode not being DLC since it's not a "major addition to the game", something most players disagree with.

The statement also suggests that the reason the PvE mode is limited is that there's not enough server space to include all of the players who own the Edge of Darkness version of Tarkov. Despite that, Battlestate has now said that the PvE mode will now be "available for free to all owners of the EoD version at the release of the game" when the servers can handle more players.

The controversy surrounding the Unheard Edition is so bad that other games, such as Helldivers 2, have started poking fun at it. Eesh.

Battlestate seems to be saying that the version of the PvE mode included in the Unheard Edition is just a "test", something players can choose to be involved with by upgrading to that release. At least there's a 50 percent discount for EoD players, right? Regular players can also purchase early access to this mode, which makes it sound an awful lot like DLC, whether Battlestate agrees or not.

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