Escape from Tarkov Zombies: Battlestate Boss Nikita Buyanov Polls Players on a Standalone Co-Op Game
The annual Halloween event is currently in full swing across Escape from Tarkov, turning standard extraction raids into claustrophobic undead nightmares. Following overwhelming player engagement with the seasonal infection update, Battlestate Games studio head Nikita Buyanov has publicly polled the community on whether they want a standalone Tarkov Zombies co-op game.
Nikita Buyanov Floats a Standalone Co-Op Spin-Off Amid Halloween Event
Right now, operators dropping into Escape from Tarkov can brave the infested corridors of The Lab and Factory to face relentless waves of bloodthirsty zombies. Backed by an extensive event questline, high-risk objectives, valuable loot rewards, and exclusive achievements, the seasonal mode completely upends the tactical pace of the extraction shooter by forcing squads to hold the line against overwhelming numbers.
Capitalizing on that momentum, Nikita Buyanov took to X (formerly Twitter) to ask his quarter-of-a-million followers a blunt question: "Tarkov Zombies separate CooP game. Yes or no?" While far from a formal production announcement, the pitch immediately sparked comparisons to how the studio previously spun off its competitive firefight mode into the standalone title Escape from Tarkov: Arena.
Community Enthusiasm Collides With Concerns Over Studio Bandwidth
The initial response from fans in the replies was overwhelmingly positive. Many players pointed out that Tarkov's hardcore ballistics, manual magazine packing, weapon malfunctions, and granular medical system make for a uniquely intense cooperative survival experience, especially following the emergency nerf applied to the overpowered Labs boss Scourge during the October festivities.
At the same time, veteran players voiced legitimate concerns about whether Battlestate Games is already stretched too thin. Even after the recent rollout of Patch 1.2.0.0 across the servers, the development team is simultaneously juggling the core PvPvE platform, the dedicated PvE mode, seasonal PvP content, Escape from Tarkov: Arena, upcoming DLC expansions, and the long-promised Guncyclopedia feature. Meanwhile, for anyone dropping into the pitch-black hallways of Factory or The Lab while the undead event is live, pinpoint directional audio remains essential to hear infected sprints before you get cornered.
My Take
Let's be real for a second: clearing the blood-soaked hallways of TerraGroup Labs with a custom rifle while a horde of infected sprints at your squad as you desperately try to staple a heavy bleed is an absolute blast. Tarkov's weighty gunplay and punishing medical mechanics give zombie survival a brut tension that dedicated undead shooters rarely match. Still, seeing Nikita Buyanov specifically phrase this as a "separate" co-op game is bound to raise eyebrows among long-time backers. Nobody has forgotten the massive backlash surrounding the $250 Unheard Edition controversy when cooperative PvE access was initially gated behind a steep paywall. Rather than splitting the development team yet again for another standalone storefront release alongside Arena, Battlestate would be much better off making Zombies a permanent rotating mode inside the main client.
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