Escape From Tarkov Rival Receives First Hotfix Updates Following Early Access Launch

Gray Zone Warfare, a new extraction shooter in the same vein of Escape From Tarkov, has received its first updates following its recent Steam Early Access launch, with two hotfixes looking to address some of the biggest issues players have encountered so far.

Hotfix 1 released the same day as the game’s release, and fixed various problems causing server crashes, anti-cheat issues that were preventing players from joining servers, and a bug that caused players to spawn without head, clothes, or the ability to secure containers.

Hotfix 2 released May 2, addressing GPU-related game crashes and adding the ability to wipe characters, after which players are able to go through character creation and choose a faction once again. The wipes are irreversible, developer Madfinger Games warns.

Despite the attempts of Hotfix 1, players are still reporting various spawn issues like spawning without a head or clothes. Madfinger Game’s stated on X that it’s actively working on a solution.

Despite “Mixed” reviews on Steam, Gray Zone Warfare is certainly the game of the moment. It’s currently the top-selling game on Steam, with Madfinger announcing more than 400,000 copies have been sold so far. It’s also rising up the Steam top-played charts. As of writing it’s just shy of breaking into the top-20 games on the platform in terms of concurrent players.

Much like Escape From Tarkov, Gray Zone Warfare is a tactical FPS where players drop into a warzone and battle both against NPCs and other players in an attempt to extract with gear and loot. Players can choose to join one of three different PMC factions, but be warned: only players on the same faction can team up. Thankfully, players can now re-select their faction via the character wipe function added with the latest hotfix.

Gray Zone Warfare’s popularity is only being helped by recent controversy surrounding Escape From Tarkov, which has seen its community turn against it following unpopular announcements from developer BattleState Games. The embattled developer attempted to sell exclusive access to PvE mode for Escape From Tarkov as part of a $250 edition of the game, despite owners of a previous edition being promised all future DLC.

BattleState Games has since walked back its initial plans and apologized, with the developer stating it didn’t “foresee” the negative reaction to locking Tarkov’s PvE mode behind a $250 paywall. The studio is now attempting to win back players by offering the PvE mode for free (but granting access to it in waves) and removing a controversial perk of the $250 edition, priority matchmaking. Whether or not BattleState’s apology resonates still remains to be seen, but it seems many players are eager to move on to greener pastures, and for many that means giving Gray Zone Warfare a try.