Escape From Tarkov Head Teases Release On Steam

Among the live-service behemoths, few games are as big, specifically on PC, as Escape from Tarkov. That’s especially noteworthy considering that, for the longest time, the game was only available via a proprietary launcher, something that most PC gamers dislike greatly.

Escape from Tarkov: Arena, a hardcore shooter spin-off, eventually made its way to the Epic Games Store back in March. However, it now looks like the core extraction shooter that is most popular will finally make its debut on Steam nearly a decade after its initial release via Early Access.

The Steam Numbers For Escape From Tarkov Will Likely Be Massive

As first spotted by Insider Gaming, Nikita Buyanov, the head of Battlestate Games, the group behind Tarkov, took to social media to do something relatively simple: post a GIF of an iron releasing — wait for it — steam.

Go figure that on Tenor, a GIF keyboard, that particular GIF is in the top five of available GIFs for things related to … steam!

Listen, we’re trying not to get too bent out of shape trying to decipher a random GIF, but way too many things are adding up right now, and we just had to share them.

If there wasn’t enough proof as it is, then how about this: Escape from Tarkov is finally moving away from its Early Access state, one that it’s maintained for nearly a decade, albeit with so many updates, later this year on Nov. 15.

In other words, a full 1.0 release would be ripe for a debut on Steam. Would it be enough to pull away people who’ve been playing the game via its proprietary launcher? Maybe. But it would be massive enough to get a lot of people who were interested to jump in, including this writer.