Team Soda has announced Escape from Duckov's first official crossover, and the partner couldn't be more fitting. The quacky extraction shooter will collaborate with Battlestate Games' Escape from Tarkov starting February 10, bringing iconic characters from the hardcore military sim into Duckov's top-down PvE world.
The announcement came through blog posts and social media from both studios earlier this week. While Duckov's developers shared substantial details about incoming content, Tarkov's team kept things characteristically cryptic.
What's Coming to Escape from Duckov
The February 10 update introduces a brand-new map built specifically for the collaboration. Players will face off against classic Tarkov characters on this new battleground, trading bullets with enemies pulled straight from Battlestate's punishing shooter.
The teaser trailer confirmed two major boss additions: Killa and Tagilla. Both are fan-favorite enemies from Tarkov known for their brutal difficulty and distinctive appearances. Seeing them translated into Duckov's top-down art style should make for an interesting visual contrast.
Team Soda is also launching a mount system alongside the crossover. The trailer shows ducks riding horses, with the mounts described as "adorable and droopy-looking" in early coverage. Specific mechanics for the system haven't been detailed yet, so it's unclear whether mounts serve a combat purpose or simply offer faster traversal.
Festival content rounds out the update, but the developers haven't elaborated beyond the initial mention. Whether this ties into the Tarkov theme or stands as separate seasonal content remains to be seen.
Tarkov's Side of Things
Battlestate Games confirmed its participation through social media, posting an image of a Tarkov player waving at a crying duck character in tactical gear. The duck holds up a rifle while the player raises their hand in what looks like surrender. Accompanying text reads "Wanna have a party?" but offers nothing concrete about actual in-game content.
No release date has been announced for Tarkov's portion of the crossover. Given Duckov's February 10 launch, players expect Tarkov's event to land around the same time, though this remains unconfirmed.
Community speculation has focused on potential new loot items. Duck figurines seem like an obvious choice given Tarkov's existing collectible items. A limited-time questline centered around the duck theme has also been floated by players.
Actual duck characters appearing in Tarkov's maps seems far less likely. Battlestate has maintained a strict commitment to realistic military simulation throughout Tarkov's development. Cartoon waterfowl wandering through its gritty Eastern European setting would clash with that established tone.
A Natural Partnership
The collaboration makes sense given Duckov's origins. Jeff Chen, who leads Team Soda's five-person dev team, logged over 1,400 hours in Tarkov before creating Duckov. That extensive playtime clearly informed the game's design, even as it took the core extraction formula in a wildly different direction.
Both games share fundamental DNA. Players scavenge resources in hostile environments, build up their base of operations, fight through enemy encounters, and attempt to extract with their hard-earned loot. Lose your gear before extraction and it's gone for good.
Duckov diverges from its inspiration in several key ways. The perspective shifts from first-person to top-down. PvP encounters don't exist, making it a strictly cooperative or solo PvE experience. And instead of escaping a war-torn Russian city, players work toward assembling a spaceship for their final escape. Also, obviously, everyone's a duck.
Despite Duckov being an obvious homage (the name alone makes that clear), Battlestate Games has publicly supported the game multiple times since launch. That mutual respect between studios now translates into their first joint project, and potentially sets the stage for future collaborations.
Duckov's Breakout Success
Escape from Duckov launched October 16 last year and immediately dominated Steam. The game sold over 500,000 copies during launch weekend alone, a staggering figure for a small indie team.
Within its first week, Duckov crossed one million copies sold. The sales velocity put it among the fastest-selling indie games in recent memory.
Concurrent player numbers proved just as striking. Duckov peaked at 301,322 simultaneous players on Steam, a figure that outpaced both Battlefield 6 and GTA 5 at the time. For context, reaching 300,000 concurrent players puts a game among the biggest launches Steam has ever seen.
Those numbers have naturally tapered since the initial surge. But the game clearly made a lasting impression on the wider industry, Battlestate Games included.
Tarkov's Rocky Steam Debut
Escape from Tarkov took a much longer road to release. Development began back in 2012, with the closed alpha launching in 2016. A closed beta followed, and the game built a dedicated (if niche) following over years of early access updates.
Version 1.0 finally arrived on November 15 last year, roughly one month after Duckov's release. The timing meant both extraction shooters competed for attention during the same holiday window.
The Steam launch didn't go smoothly for Tarkov. Stability and performance issues plagued the release, with some players unable to log in at all. Others experienced crashes and connection problems that made the game nearly unplayable. These technical troubles left Tarkov sitting on a Mixed rating on Steam, a disappointing reception for such a long-anticipated full release.
What Comes Next
Duckov players can mark February 10 for the new map, Tarkov bosses, mounts, and festival content. Tarkov's corresponding event timing remains unclear, but a similar February window seems probable.
The crossover represents one of the more organic collaborations in recent gaming history. Rather than a corporate marketing play between unrelated franchises, this partnership grew from genuine mutual appreciation between developers. Chen's team built Duckov out of love for Tarkov, and Battlestate responded by embracing the homage rather than viewing it as competition.
If both games continue performing well, this crossover likely won't be the last collaboration between the two studios.
