Arena Breakout Infinite couldn’t resist a jab. The studio’s official X account posted: “Elsewhere: pay again to play. Here: free to play, very positive reviews, good anti-cheat. Escape from the wrong one shooter looter boys 😉.” The “elsewhere” isn’t subtle, it’s Escape from Tarkov, which is finally heading to Steam but won’t let existing owners simply link and launch without buying a Steam copy.
What kicked this off
Battlestate Games published a support Q&A explaining that to play Tarkov through Steam, players must purchase any Steam edition, then link accounts so progression carries over. Steam perks, achievements, friends list, and time tracking are included, but features like family sharing, Workshop, and Steam Deck support aren’t planned. That “buy again for Steam access” line is the spark that lit the fuse. We covered the policy in detail yesterday, including the community’s callouts to past cases where studios distributed keys to existing owners after moving to Steam.
Across Reddit and social media feeds, the immediate reaction to BSG’s Steam plan has been one of frustration. Some players say they’ll stay on the standalone launcher; others want achievements and Steam’s social layer without paying again. Media roundups echoed the same sticking point: if you’re going to launch via Steam, you buy again, even though your progress links over.
Valve caps “default release” Steam keys, and large follow-on requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. That policy is often mentioned when studios avoid blanket key grants. Still, it’s not an absolute blocker, which is why players continue to ask why BSG won’t implement limited distributions for existing owners.
However, the replies on the ABI X account were not so subtle and leaned towards them. Actually, they got a rough response from the ones that love Escape From Tarkov and critiqued their self-promotion, saying that their game is Pay2Win, which is a day and night difference with Escape From Tarkov. So what do you think about all of this?
