Escape From Tarkov Arena, the upcoming arena shooter spinoff of EFT, will look to take the fight to some of the best competitive FPS games when it finally launches, with Battlestate Games COO Nikita Buyanov claiming the game will be “ready to use in esports” as soon as it’s out.
By taking Escape From Tarkov’s gunplay and putting it into a team-based PvP format, there is real optimism that EFT Arena could seriously take off and rival other popular competitive shooters like Counter-Strike:Global Offensive or Rainbow Six Siege. During a livestream discussing all things EFT, Buyanov reveals a few bits of information about Arena, what players can expect, and why not much else has been said about it since it was first revealed in June 2022.
First, Buyanov comments on how many maps Arena will have when it launches. “[There will be] four arenas from the start – maybe more actually,” he says. This does appear to be less than was billed in Arena’s announcement stream, during which Buyanov said the game would start with “five or six” small arenas “and maybe one or two medium arenas”, as reported by NME.
The Battlestate Games lead goes on to namedrop some key features that you’d expect from any hardcore PvP title, including efforts to develop “matchmaking” and “rankings”, as well as a spectator cam which can be used for broadcasting matches.
“We’ve positioned the game to be ready to use in esports,” he says confidently.
Buyanov also reiterates that this is not just a bolt-on mode to Tarkov, and that Arena is being made by a separate team and “a lot is being done from scratch”.
There appears to be a lot of effort being put in by Battlestate to make EFT Arena shine on the competitive stage, but it may be a while before the game fully launches. Closed beta testing, however, is still expected to begin later this year.