After a $250 paywall snafu, Escape From Tarkov somehow upsets its community even more with refunds that are actually just coupons

Escape From Tarkov's developers have made several controversial decisions regarding game pricing, including a $250 edition and a$50 upgrade that is now only refundable as in-game credit.

Escape From Tarkov hasn't had the best of times with its community lately, and it seems to be getting worse with a new refund policy that only offers players in-game credit.

Last month, Escape From Tarkov's developers revealed a brand new PvE mode would be locked behind a $250 edition of the shooter. This was compounded by a previous$150 Edge of Darkness edition, which claimed to offer all future in-game content, effectively made redundant by excluding the PvE mode from the expensive $150 edition. 

What made matters more confusing was when Escape From Tarkov's developer offered a $50 upgrade, which would take players from the$150 edition to the $250 version, despite the fact that some players had already forked out$100 to upgrade between versions. Players who had already shelled out the $100 to upgrade understandably felt frustrated.

The tweet just below somehow makes a bad situation even worse. Escape From Tarkov's developer announced that anyone who plonked down $100 to upgrade from the$150 edition to the $250 edition will be refunded$50—but only in the form of in-game credit. There won't be any actual real-world money making its way back into the hands of players. 

We continue issuing expansions for various editions of the game. All players who upgraded to The Unheard Edition from the Edge of Darkness Edition before the upgrade price was lowered are eligible for a $50 compensation. Please note that you can only use the compensation once:…May 17, 2024

"Please note that you can only use the compensation once: if the cost of all the expansions you have selected is lower than the compensation, the remaining balance cannot be used later," the tweet above reads, before adding "You can use the compensation in your profile on the Escape from Tarkov website."

"That's not a refund that sounds more like a coupon," reads one response from a player on Twitter. "That’s because it is, in fact, a coupon. And not even a proper one at that," another user rightly points out. Someone else, meanwhile, has taken a screenshot of the tweet above and just drawn a massive dick over it. 

If there's any good news to come from this situation, it's that last month, Escape From Tarkov's developers u-turned and said the PvE mode would be open to everyone for free - but only in waves, and only after the game eventually launches out of beta at some point. It's been a rocky road for Battlestate Games over the past month or so.

Read up on our new games 2024 guide for a look at all the upcoming titles you can play this year and beyond.