Escape from Tarkov dev says the military shooter will not be getting playable female characters

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Battlestate Games say it's because of the game lore and animations.

Escape From Tarkov
(Image credit: Battlestate Games)

Developers Battlestate Games has stated that there are no plans to include playable female characters into the hardcore military shooter Escape from Tarkov. The statement was made as a response to questions about comments made in a 2016 interview.

Due to the game's current popularity on Twitch, a 2016 interview with wccftech has resurfaced where a representative of Escape from Tarkov explains the developer's decision to not have playable female characters is that "women can't handle that amount of stress" and that the battlefield of Escape from Tarkov was a place only for "hardened men."

Battlestate Games has addressed these comments in a Twitter statement explaining that the comments made where misinterpreted and that the employee was subsequently reprimanded. Battlestate then followed up with two more tweets explaining that it still stands by the decision of not including playable female characters due to lore and animation reasons. 

"First—there are women in EFT already (trader, some future key storyline quests will have women as main characters). But there will be no playable female characters because of game lore and more importantly—the huge amount of work needed with animations, gear fitting etc."

The comments made by Battlestate Games are reminiscent of those made by Ubisoft back in 2014 when asked why Assassin's Creed Unity co-op decided to skip female playable characters. Ubisoft explained that making female animation models was "a lot of extra production work."

Rachel Watts
Rachel Watts

Rachel had been bouncing around different gaming websites as a freelancer and staff writer for three years before settling at PC Gamer back in 2019. She mainly writes reviews, previews, and features, but on rare occasions will switch it up with news and guides. When she's not taking hundreds of screenshots of the latest indie darling, you can find her nurturing her parsnip empire in Stardew Valley and planning an axolotl uprising in Minecraft. She loves 'stop and smell the roses' games—her proudest gaming moment being the one time she kept her virtual potted plants alive for over a year.