Metro Exclusidus
It’s been announced that the digital version of Metro Exodus on PC will be releasing exclusively on Epic Games Store. This decision has been made largely due to cost with Epic offering an 88% split on sales opposed to Steam’s 30%.
“We are delighted to partner with Epic to bring the digital PC version of Metro Exodus to market,” said Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO at Deep Silver. “Epic’s generous revenue terms are a game changer that will allow publishers to invest more into content creation, or pass on savings to the players. By teaming up with Epic we will be able to invest more into the future of Metro and our ongoing partnership with series developer 4A Games, to the benefit of our Metro fans.”
It’s noted that whilst Metro will now be exclusive to Epic Games Store, anyone who did pre-order through other digital retailers, will still receive their game. Steam hasn’t taken this news all too well, understandably, and have posted the below message on Metro’s listing on their store.
Notice: Sales of Metro Exodus have been discontinued on Steam due to a publisher decision to make the game exclusive to another PC store.
The developer and publisher have assured us that all prior sales of the game on Steam will be fulfilled on Steam, and Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam.
We think the decision to remove the game is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long pre-sale period. We apologize to Steam customers that were expecting it to be available for sale through the February 15th release date, but we were only recently informed of the decision and given limited time to let everyone know.
For years Steam has sat atop the throne of digital retail for PC games with barely any competition. Of late, they have come under fire because of their attitude to tasteless games being uploaded to their marketplace. Indie developers have also been having a tough time getting noticed on Steam, largely due to games being review-bombed by users, causing them to drop down the listings. In short, Steam isn’t particularly favoured at the moment.
But then Epic announced that they were to use their Fortnite accrued funds to set up Epic Games Store, a direct competitor to Steam. It’s still in its infancy but it’s clear that they mean business if this recent Metro exclusivity is anything to go by. Whether we see more games shifting to Epic Games Store remains to be seen but with the negativity surrounding Steam partnered with the enticing 88% revenue, it seems like it’s a certainty.
