Battlestate Games recently backtracked on their decision to lock a co-op player vs. environment (PvE) mode behind the $250 Unheard Edition of the popular extraction shooter Escape From Tarkov after facing player backlash.
According to GamesRadar+, Battlestate announced the Unheard Edition last week, which included many elements that were criticized as being “pay to win” by players, and was the only place where a PvE mode was described.
This led to backlash from players in the game’s Discord server, calling out the developers for locking a major mode behind such a high price tag. A previous deluxe version of the game, the Edge of Darkness (EoD) Edition, had promised that all future DLC would be free for people who owned it.
Now, the studio has reversed course and promised that the version will be free for all EoD owners, though it will only be available once the game is out of beta due to server capacity issues.
Battlestate head Nik Buyanov took to Reddit to address the issue and apologize to fans of the game.
“First of all, I would like to say that I am very sorry that fans and the game community in general are experiencing these feelings,” Buyanov wrote. “Unfortunately, I somehow did not foresee the fact of such a reaction and now I have drawn conclusions for my future decisions.”
He added that the Unheard Edition would not be going away, but will be retooled to address player feedback.
“About the Unheard Edition – we will not remove it, we want to keep the option for those who want to support the game more,” he wrote. “But we will balance items, perks in this edition, as well as we will provide more rewards for those, who upgraded with the old price.”
He also said they would be adding MOD support for the PvE mode, and would be adding more unique perks to the EoD Edition.
“Thank you for your time, love and hate, and thank you for your increased attention to the current situation,” he concluded.