Escape from Tarkov finally puts on the big boy pants and announces a Steam release as it gears up for version 1.0

Escape from Tarkov, the influential extraction shooter from Battlestate Games, is coming to Steam after eight years in early access. The news was first teased by Battlestate head of studio, Nikita Buyanov, who posted a gif of some old chap pressing the steam button on an iron and looking pleased with himself.

"Yes! The page on Steam will be available soon," Buyanov subsequently added. "All the details later."

The Steam page for Escape from Tarkov is not yet live, but fans want one question answered. Tarkov may have been in early access or beta for eight years, but it's come with a significant price tag and has, on occasion, infuriated its playerbase with various monetisation decisions. So… are existing players going to be able to add the game they've already paid for to their Steam libraries, or is this a new purchase?

Buyanov has yet to address this, though he did respond to one very rude player ranting about the Steam release with the line: "please, eat bag of dicks." In Soviet Russia, dev trolls you!

The Steam release might well align with the release of Tarkov's long-awaited version 1.0, which is scheduled for 15th November 2025. Battlestate Games says that over the eight years the games been in beta, it's received over 400 updates:

"We would like to express our sincere gratitude to every player whose dedication and active participation throughout the testing period played a key role in the development of Escape from Tarkov," said a Battlestate Games statement.

One thing will certainly be fun to watch: the Steam reviews. Escape from Tarkov is a brilliant game but it's also one that every so often upsets players big-time: most recently, with a patch that reset player progress, altered the economy and progression, and left everyone bored to tears with the grind. I'm not going to say that this is going to get review bombed on day one by players with thousands of hours already logged outside of Steam… but let's wait and see, comrades.

Best graphics card 2025

👉Check out our full guide👈

1. Best overall: AMD Radeon RX 9070

2. Best value: AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB

3. Best budget: Intel Arc B570

4. Best mid-range: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

5. Best high-end: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090