Developer Battlestate Games has stated that it has no plans to include playable female characters in its hardcore military shooter Escape from Tarkov. This statement was made in response to a question regarding comments made in a 2016 interview.

Because of the game's current popularity on Twitch, a 2016 wccftech interview has resurfaced, in which a representative of Escape from Tarkov said that the developer's decision not to make female characters playable was due to "the . cannot withstand the amount of stress" and that Escape from Tarkov's battlefield is a place only for "well-trained men."

Battlestate Games addressed these statements in a statement on Twitter, explaining that the statements were misinterpreted and that the employee has since been disciplined. Later, in two more tweets, Battlestate explained that it still stands by its decision not to include playable female characters for lore and animation reasons.

"First, there are already women in EFT (traders and important future story quests will feature women as main characters). However, there are no playable female characters due to the enormous amount of work required for the game's lore and, more importantly, the animation and equipment fitting."

Battlestate Games' comments are reminiscent of comments Ubisoft made in 2014 when asked why there would be no female playable characters in the co-op of Assassin's Creed Unity. Ubisoft explained that creating animated female models was "a lot of extra production work."