Escape from Tarkov game director Nikita Buyanov has apologized to players for the "rough" release of the extraction shooter's 1.0 version and Steam debut, saying the team is "willing to continue fighting" to "finally crack the performance problems."

On Steam, Escape from Tarkov currently has a 'mixed' user review rating, with most of the complaints around server issues that are causing long queues, performance problems, and bugs.

Writing on Twitter/X, Battlestate's Buyanov thanked players "for this overwhelming interest for the game," adding: "servers get full really fast so we['re] adding more and more servers worldwide to cut matching times more. We are also fixing all of the incoming bugs, and as I said, we will continue to improve and fix the game for the next months.

"The release was rough for sure, sorry for that. But we are willing to continue fighting for everything good against bad. We will continue to provide to you, actual fans of the game, things that you will enjoy. We need to finally crack this performance problems, outdated stuff and legacy bugs which [are] left. Yes, a lot of things were fixed in release version, but it's not enough."

In a separate statement posted to Steam, Battlestate thanked players for "supporting the project throughout all stages of development and testing, and for deciding to share this important event," and said, "despite careful preparation, unforeseen situations may arise during the process. Your bug reports help us quickly find and fix issues, making your gaming experience more comfortable and stable."

Battlestate also promised in-game compensation for all players in the near future: a Bear Classic and USEC Night Patrol set. If these sets have already been purchased, an in-game reward will be credited, the developer continued.

A technical update released on Monday, November 17, issued a handful of issues. Patch notes are below:

• Fixed an issue with a broken character model appearing in the Hideout in certain cases;
• Fixed the game client freeze when switching to Trader interaction screen from the Hideout;
• Fixed the incorrect lighting for Jaeger when SSR is enabled in graphics settings;
• Fixed the cause of main menu elements appearing during matching in certain cases;
• Disabled several PostFX settings;
• Fixed the cause of bots teleporting while using stationary weapons in certain cases;
• Fixed the cause of bots flying in the air in certain cases.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.