Escape From Tarkov has made a notable entrance into the gaming world, achieving significant success without the backing of major digital storefronts like Steam. This achievement has been pivotal in establishing the extraction shooter genre, demonstrating its potential to captivate players. However, the long-awaited arrival on Valve’s immensely popular platform has not been without its challenges, as the launch has been marred by a series of technical difficulties.
Launch Challenges and Player Reactions
The Steam debut coincides with the game’s 1.0 release, which has propelled it to the forefront of Downdetector, where reports of connection issues have surged into the hundreds per hour since this morning. Players have taken to Steam to voice their frustrations, resulting in a “Mixed” rating for the game. One user, Icedecknight, succinctly expressed their dissatisfaction: “Negative review until I can actually play the game.”
In response to the overwhelming demand, the developers have acknowledged the launch difficulties. A post on X stated that the team is aware of the high traffic causing connectivity and authorization issues, assuring players that their technical team is diligently working to stabilize the servers.
Many players have encountered similar hurdles. Steam user Kev-O recounted their experience: “When I launched the game, a window popped up asking me to create an account, but when I went to their website to create an account, it was under maintenance. Haven’t been able to play.” As I attempted to access the Escape From Tarkov website, I found myself in a virtual queue with a wait time of 55 minutes just to view the homepage.
Social media platforms have also seen a flurry of activity, with players reporting various error codes and bugs that hinder their ability to log in. Common issues include error codes 1000, 0, and 213, the latter being a familiar sight for seasoned Tarkov players. Reddit user ascend204 humorously noted, “Welcome to Tarkov wipe day, expect the game to start working in a few hours. It’s always a mess the first 2-3 hours.” Others have reported complications with game updates, difficulties progressing past the tutorial, and excessively long loading screens.
Despite the chaos, it’s important to recognize that such challenges are not uncommon for a highly anticipated launch of a live service game. Escape From Tarkov stands as one of the premier extraction shooters, and many negative reviews seem to focus more on the launch issues than the game itself. As one Steam reviewer aptly put it, it is the “best extraction shooter that you CAN’T play.”
According to SteamDB, Escape From Tarkov currently ranks as the second best-selling game on Steam. While it has seen around 19,000 concurrent players at the time of writing, there is optimism that this number will rise as the technical issues are resolved. However, it may face stiff competition from fellow extraction shooter Arc Raiders, which has enjoyed a remarkably successful launch.
