Escape from Tarkov is finally crossing the Rubicon into a 1.0 release on November 15, and it just unveiled something that might be a little surreal if you’ve followed the game’s eight years in early access: its very own Steam page, where it’ll soon have achievements, the Steam overlay, friends list integration and all that great stuff.
This will be most exciting if you don’t own Escape from Tarkov yet and have been holding out for this very moment. If you already own it and want to play it through Steam, though, you’ll need to buy it again and link your Steam account to your existing Tarkov profile, Battlestate confirmed in a blog post.
It’s all on the same servers so you won’t have to buy the Steam version to play with Steam players, and you’ve always had the option of adding Tarkov as a non-Steam game to your library if all you want is the ease of access and the overlay. But all the other big features—friend list synchronization, Steam achievements, lifelong playtime tracking—will be exclusive to those who buy it through the platform. It also means players with thousands of hours sunk in will only be able to leave a review on the new storefront if they buy the game again.
If you have a high tier edition of the game, you only need the standard edition on Steam to get your foot in the door and link your accounts, but I have a feeling that won’t offer much consolation to fans who might have been looking forward to playing on Steam without paying for the game twice.
And if you were specifically interested in Steam Deck verification, Steam Workshop support, or family sharing, uh, don’t be, because those aren’t planned. The Steam release brings the game to a new storefront for first-time buyers and anyone willing to double-dip, and that’s about it.
Escape from Tarkov is no stranger to outrage-inducing monetization tactics, so this isn’t exactly surprising, but we’ll see if it puts a damper on the imminent 1.0 launch. Given the millions of PC gamers for whom Steam is the go-to digital library, it’ll inevitably make a splash when the biggest extraction shooter to date finally makes it to the platform.
You can check out the new page here and wishlist the game, which releases on November 15. The Steam version itself is only labeled “coming soon.”
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