Escape From Tarkov lead seems to be teasing a new game with big Starfield energy, but it may be something far more disappointing

Escape From Tarkov has been Battlestate Games’ life for almost a decade now. From bringing the main game to Steam, finally launching version 1.0, and releasing its PvP-focused spinoff EFT Arena, Battlestate has poured everything it has into Tarkov and its community. While there’s still ongoing support and DLC planned for the extraction shooter, it appears that the studio’s head honcho, Nikita Buyanov, is teasing something new. Due to the elaborate nature of the cryptic teasers he’s been posting recently, and a newly discovered website teeing up a space sci-fi universe, it feels like we could be getting a first glimpse at an all-new game. Exciting stuff. However, there is a chance we may be left disappointed.

For the last week or so, Buyanov has been frequently posting strange riddles, puzzles, and cyphers to his X account. Initially, I and many others suspected it could be pointing to an easter egg in Escape From Tarkov, or a hint at some upcoming content for the FPS game. However, it became clear that this was about something far bigger (and weirder) than that. Then yesterday, Tuesday January 13, he reposted an image from an unusual account called ‘CORE Corp,’ and immediately the floodgates opened. This image featured a web address, cor3.gg, which is hosting tons of information about a new sci-fi universe.

When you first go to the website, you’re met with a page telling you that the year is 2251. “200 years ago, humanity was able to stand at the brink of darkness, survive, and reverse mutual total destruction,” the page reads. “The organization that secretly proclaimed itself as the Core was able to gather the remnants of everything human and turn back the tide of destruction, by convincing and uniting the governments of the world.”

You can then proceed to an interactive scene that seems to throw you into some kind of workshop or bunker. You can hover your cursor over items to see their names and descriptions, such as an armor plate vest called the Darkhound Oppressor Modular Platecarrier, which is made by a “legendary company known throughout the solar system.” You also see gear tied to a “colonial” organization called CCS. This seems to tee up a world with at least two or three big corporations operating across presumably our own solar system, which is giving me Outer Worlds and Starfield vibes for sure.

At the centre of the scene is a CORIE terminal, with CORIE standing for Corporate Interspace Environment. Walking up to it allows you to get access to loads more information. By inputting your email address, you’ll then be sent a one-time passcode that gives you a user ID to open up the terminal’s files. Now, when I tried to do this, I never received my code, so there might be an issue with sending those out at the moment. However, plenty of others have got in and rummaged through all the info buried within.

Insider Gaming’s Grant ‘Nukov’ Taylor-Hill is one such sleuth, and he’s produced a handy video showcasing all the information which you can check out below. Files include mission logs and reports from various dates over the 200-year period described at the beginning. One file also appears to reveal that your character is a “private investigator” for a group known as History Unfolded. You also take part in a conversation with a woman called Aurana Strogova, who has hired you to go through documents and extract important information.

The terminal also appears to give you a new task to complete every day, with credits and daily bonuses awarded to you for each one you tick off. So it clearly wants you to keep coming back and uncover more information gradually.

So, is this teeing up a grand sci-fi universe for a brand new Battlestate game? Maybe. The amount of effort that’s gone into this makes me think it genuinely could be, but there are a couple of other avenues. First, while there are currently no concrete signs that this is part of the same timeline and universe as Escape From Tarkov, this could end up being some eccentric narrative exercise to show what happens to humanity hundreds of years after the events of EFT.

The second, and potentially more troubling scenario, is that this isn’t a game at all and is being used to drum up interest for some kind of cryptocurrency. Yes, this could have some crypto ties. Buyanov actually filed a trademark for Cor3 back in 2024, and you can still view it on the USPTO website right now. However, if you look under the Goods and Services section, which relates to the intended uses of the product you’re trademarking, the majority of uses relate to cryptocurrency. One use case does mention “providing online computer games,” but this is the only thing pointing towards it being tied to anything gaming related.

This is an unusual situation, as I can’t see Buyanov whipping up this much hype for something and making it look and feel like a tease for a new game, only to then reveal that it’s some kind of crypto platform or currency. I’d love to see this become a planet-hopping shooter where you have to pledge an allegiance to one of the many corporations and factions that are mentioned in the terminal’s files, but until we hear officially from Buyanov and Battlestate about what it is, we can only speculate for now.