Escape From Tarkov’s Steam release comes with a snag for people who already own it

It’s that time of the year folks. The weather’s getting colder, the days are getting shorter, and Escape From Tarkov is getting Tweeted and Skeeted about again because of a controversial decision. This time, it’s because the game is coming to Steam, which in and of itself is a perfectly fine, perhaps even smart thing to do. The thing that’s being called into question however, is the answer to a question on the Steam release’s FAQ page about whether or not you’ll have to buy it again.

“To play Escape from Tarkov through Steam, you must purchase any edition of the game on Steam,” the FAQ page explains. “You can then link your existing Battlestate Games account with an active copy of the game to your Steam profile. If the editions differ, it will automatically use the higher edition of the two when launching the game through Steam.”

It then provides an example, noting that if you buy the standard edition on Steam, but your Battlestate Games account has the Unheard Edition, that’s the one you’ll be able to play on Steam. That’s… something? I just can’t see any particular reason you’d want to buy the game again aside from Steam Deck functionality, except the FAQ also notes that “Battlestate Games [have] no plans to support a version of the game for Steam Deck,” so you can throw that reason out of the window. There will be Steam achievements if that’s something you care about?

All of your character progress will carry over to the Steam version of the game as well, once you’ve linked your Battlestate Games account, and you’ll still be playing on the same servers as people who bought the game on its official website.

I have no idea how easy it would be to guarantee every single person who owns the game a copy on Steam as well, but it still feels like an odd choice in general. In any case, after being in early access for close to a decade, the full version of the game launches in a couple months’ time on November 15th.