For the 80-person development team at St. Petersburg-based Battlestate Games, hardcore first-person shooters are a great passion. The foundational team got its start at AbsolutSoft creating the incredible fast-paced shooter Contract Wars for browsers and the now-retired Unity Web Player. The development of that game proved to be excellent ground to learn new skills and gain expertise while also building up the finances needed to evolve and found Battlestate Games, a studio focused entirely on the development of its “Russia 2028” universe of games.

“We learned quite a bit from our experiences at AbsolutSoft. Not only did we gain critical knowledge and understanding of first-person shooters, but we also developed a deep understanding of Unity and its systems,” says COO and project lead Nikita Buyanov. “This allowed us to begin Escape from Tarkov with an amazing foundation of both design and technology, and we’re fortunate to get to focus on creating exactly the hardcore games that we love so much.”