After 9 Years, Escape from Tarkov Dev Says Buy It Again on Steam for 1.0: "There Are No Excuses"

Escape from Tarkov is finally inching toward its 1.0 full launch and, yep, a long-awaited Steam release. The catch: if you want to run it through Steam, you have to buy it there again. Not a great way to kick off a victory lap.

What Battlestate is actually doing

Battlestate Games put out a Q&A laying out how the Steam version works, and the short version is: Steam is a separate purchase and a separate install. You buy any edition on Steam, download the whole thing via Steam, then link your existing Battlestate account so your character and progression come with you. Everyone still plays on the same servers regardless of where they bought the game.

"To play Escape from Tarkov through Steam, you must purchase any edition of the game on Steam."

There is one friendly bit in the fine print: if the edition on your Battlestate account is higher than the Steam one, the Steam launch will use the higher-tier profile. So if you snag the Standard Edition on Steam but your existing Battlestate account owns The Unheard Edition, you get Unheard perks when playing through Steam.

So... what is the point of the Steam version?

Tarkov on Steam is functionally the same game. The difference is Steam features. No more, no less.

• You get Steam achievements and friends list sync.
• No Steam family sharing, no Steam Workshop integration, and no Steam Deck support (for now).
• You can add the non-Steam launcher build to your Steam library as a shortcut, but you will not get those Steam-native features that way.

Why fans are mad

The double-dip is not landing well. The top Reddit replies boil down to: you are paying again just to access your existing account through Steam. One user flat-out called it buying back into your own profile. Another, Sovishee, argued Battlestate could just hand out Steam keys to existing owners, pointing to examples like what the Path of Exile 2 devs have done.

Players also cite games that started off Steam and later offered keys: Elite Dangerous did it; Fallout 76 handed out Steam keys to players who linked a Steam account within a two-week window during its relaunch. On the other end of the spectrum, the community has gotten spicy, with edits and memes calling this move a "final f*** off to the fans." One viral clip even framed Tarkov as an endurance test for how many slaps a loyal fanbase will put up with.

To be fair, giving out keys is common but not guaranteed. It saves early adopters some cash and hassle, but it is not industry law. Battlestate’s stance suggests the only real upside to Steam is QoL stuff on Valve’s platform, and they are charging for that convenience.

Could Battlestate have done it differently?

There are real limitations on free Steam keys in Valve’s Steamworks docs. That said, plenty of studios have navigated those limits before. If Battlestate is worried about key resellers, that argument feels thin for a game as established as Tarkov.

Some folks think this is about resetting the table for Steam reviews, since making people repurchase might skew early ratings toward newer, less jaded players. I don’t really buy that would help. One user is already predicting the game will get ratioed into the ground on day one. Considering the recommended specs currently ask for 64GB of RAM and an RTX 4070 or better, it is not hard to imagine a rocky reviews page if performance is not spotless.

If you want Tarkov on Steam anyway

Here is the actual process: buy any edition on Steam, fully reinstall via Steam, link your Battlestate account, and you are in. Your character and progression carry over, and if your Battlestate edition is higher than the Steam one, the Steam launch respects the higher tier. If you do not care about Steam achievements or friends sync, you can keep playing your existing non-Steam install without spending another cent.

Last note: Valve just rolled out a nice Steam client update with long-requested stuff like UI scaling. So yeah, Steam is in a good place right now. But asking people to repurchase an old favorite to get those perks? That is going to sting.