Escape from Tarkov Unheard Edition drama, explained

Over the last month, the Escape from Tarkov community has been up in arms around the state of the game and the surrounding drama around the new Unheard Edition that Battlestate Games announced in the latest patch notes.

Plenty of players are usually going to be against pay-to-win elements in video games, and in an unrelenting world like Tarkov, buying your way to victory will be felt in the worst way. With multiple different items, several boosts to character levels, and unique items with huge in-game benefits, the new Unheard Edition was setting a bad precedent for the future of the franchise.

Moving forward, more decisions were made by the developers to help satiate the community but ended up lighting even more fires as the player base continued to demand change. If you’re not caught up with all the drama around Escape from Tarkov, this is everything you need to know.

Explaining drama around Escape from Tarkov‘s Unheard Edition

The Unheard Edition is announced

On Thursday, April 25, the Escape from Tarkov developers announced that a new version of the game was being launched with the Unheard Edition, which gave players a ton of gear, resources, weaponry, and a whole slew of extra goodies like bonus character levels, unique items, and even increased standing with Fences.

Players were firmly against the addition of the Unheard Edition, saying it was introducing far too many pay-to-win elements to keep the game balanced, especially around server wipes where Unheard owners would have a pretty large advantage over other players in the early stages of the grind.

It also upset a large majority of players who owned the old Edge of Darkness edition of the game since they weren’t even given access to the upcoming PvE game mode. This went completely against the original promise when purchasing the Edge of Darkness edition that said all future DLC would be free for whoever bought the Edge of Darkness edition.

Battlestate Games’ attempt at placating the player base

A day later, the developers announced some changes for any Edge of Darkness edition owners, allowing them access to the co-op PvE game mode and high-priority matching—but with an unfortunate catch: Edge of Darkness owners will only have these features and access to the new game mode for six months before it’s placed behind the Unheard Edition paywall once more.

This caused players to not only complain about even more pay-to-win features being added but also rip into the developers for putting a time constraint on what was supposed to be given to Edge of Darkness owners in the first place. Players are now tired of seemingly constantly being lied to when it comes to which content will be provided to them, along with the increased forms of pay-to-win elements that will eventually affect the game’s experience.