Tarkov is Releasing Soon

(Intro)

We officially have Tarkov’s release date. BSG not too long ago put out a cinematic trailer that revealed the official 1.0 release date: November 15th, 2025. I’m honestly surprised it was released this way; I figured they would’ve made more of a deal out of it. But it kind of just popped up one day in the afternoon and now, here we are. That’s barely under three months away. And honestly, a lot still needs to happen either before, or on that release date. And that’s what we’re going to discuss; the final real stretch, what needs to change inside of the game, what we could expect and whether or not BSG can actually do this. Can they? I don’t know anymore…

(Optimization)

I think I speak for everyone when I say the absolutely number one priority should be optimization across the entire game. Over the years, the general performance has gotten worse to a point where many players can’t run the game at optimal frame rates without resorting to either dropping their settings across the board or using some form of upscaling at the cost of visual fidelity. I’ve had to use DLSS myself for the last year or so; whenever they released the final expansion for Customs. And as someone who plays that map the most out of all the rest, it hasn’t run well even with the upscaling on. I used to get over one hundred frames on Customs years ago. But now, that’s anything but a dream. Maybe it’s time for a PC upgrade, but nobody that has a PC made within the last three years should feel the need to upgrade in order to enjoy a game that previously ran well. It’s something that even if the contents of 1.0 were not substantial, if the game ran two or even three times better, people would be more than happy with the upgrade. Streets is still a contentious point as well because that map has been a massive roadblock for both the community and the developers. There was a rumor at one point going around that Streets would be cut into two separate maps to help with the performance. And while I wish they wouldn’t have to resort to that because Streets is kind of a design marvel, if it has to happen so people can play it than I am fine with that happening. Optimization isn’t a conversation that needs much more elaboration or debate; we all want this and the game needs this at the very least. I am really crossing my fingers in the hopes we see some major improvements to how the game runs. Because for many if it doesn’t get better, that’s a done deal for them.

(“Balance”)

Something else that kind of needs to be finalized before or immediately after 1.0’s launch is the general balance of the game. And when I say balance, I more so refer to how BSG wants the general flow and pacing of the game to be. This game will never actually be balanced regarding weapon recoil, ammo penetration; stuff like that. So, we can skip that conversation. But does BSG want us to focus more on exploration and finding our items in raid? Are the traders going to have their inventories completely shuffled around, or will they look familiar to what they are now? These are interesting questions because we’ve never gotten a definitive answer. So, the conversations around this subject have been divisive to say the least. Some want them to have more; some want them to have less. Either way, my general hope is that they have less, but not nothing. Earning new purchasable items should be feel substantial; even with things like a basic red dot sight. Smooth and consistent would be the two adjectives I’d use to describe progression in 1.0. Even if it means the traders have something like a fifth loyalty level to help smooth out the progression curve, I don’t think many would be opposed to that idea. But it all comes down to what they want, which to this day we don’t have any concrete ideas as to what they might do.

(Cheating)

Cheating. Do I need to say anything else? Let’s move on. I’m kidding. In all seriousness though, like any company, they will never win the war against cheaters, but this wipe has been particularly bad for how rampant they’ve been running around. So, some form of additional protections or changes from the developers as well as anything else we the players can do on our end to ensure we see as few cheaters as possibly would be huge. I mean the Battlefield 6 beta forced players to secure boot their PCs to even play it. Whether or not something like that would help as an extra layer of insulation, I have no idea. But at this point, I’m willing to try almost anything to get rid of them. My only hope is that they are looking at every possible solution to help their game be more secure.

(Unknown mechanics)

Other than mechanics and changes we do know, there is still tons that we don’t have a clue about. What are the main story quests going to look like? Is each trader going to be in the world of EFT, separated across the different maps that we will need to travel to if we want to see them? And what about Terminal? How the heck does that map work? What purpose does it provide other than being our ticket out of Tarkov? How involved is that entire process going to be? Are there going to be any major shakeups to faction relations and how USECs and BEARs engage with one another? So many questions still. And while I like that BSG wants to keep most of this a secret, part of me also wants the answers to all those questions. My biggest concern is if the game is literally the exact same thing we have now, only there is a new primary questline and Terminal is added into the game. That would feel like such a wet noddle of a 1.0 release, and I think BSG would also agree. Which is why I feel as though this will not be the case. To their credit, multiple times BSG has genuinely surprised the community with events or new mechanics that were awesome when first introduced. Think about it: imagine you download the update when it releases. You boot up the game, and instead of going to the main menu which we’re so used to, the game opens up with a cutscene that shows Tarkov falling into chaos soon after the EMP is launched across the region. And then at the end it smoothly transitions into your PMC, on Ground Zero and the tutorial begins. It doesn’t sound that impressive, but it would blow my mind if that happened. But it’s only another three months; I guess we can just wait it out.

(Can they do it?)

A question that has kind of been permitting the air recently after the release date was shown to us was can BSG actually pull this off? Will they release this game on time, and will it live up to everyone’s expectations? And for a while my answer was an emphatic yes, but now, I just want to be hopefully. I don’t wish the failure of death of this game; we all have put so much of our time into it. To see EFT hit 1.0 and have it be a smooth and successful launch would make me very happy. But with how things are right now; the AI being out of control, bugs galore with the 16.9 patch and everything else in between, my confidence has been dashed somewhat. The game cannot look like the way it does now after it releases; that will be the final preverbal nail in the coffin for EFT. Again, for anyone who is still playing, can still find enjoyment here and there and are still wishing BSG the best of luck with the release, I hope we can all enjoy this game in November after supporting it for almost an entire decade. That it feels new and unique but also familiar at the same time. All we can do at this point is cross our fingers and play it launch. We already bought it so it’s not like we have to buy it a second time. But maybe I shouldn’t give them any stupid ideas.

(Outro)

I never thought we would get to this point. An official release date from BSG for Tarkov. And a not so far date to boot. Its’s kind of surreal to be honest. My hopes are this game is different when it comes out, but the harsh reality is that there’s a good chance that this game is the same going on’s we’ve been dealing with for years now with some extra content added on and maybe some polishing up here and there. But like I said before, BSG has surprised us before. What’s one more time for the most important update of the game and the company's life? Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on the 1.0 release date, if you think they can hit it, how much the game will or will not change and be sure to subscribe for more videos about the final stretch of Tarkov becoming something tangible, and the game changes potentially forever. I hope to see you in future ones.