Metro Exodus is returning to Steam after lengthy Epic Games Store exclusivity

[Polycount]

Platform wars: When the Epic Games Store first launched, it wasn't exactly met with open arms. Epic was quick to throw its weight around in the market by offering a more appealing revenue share to developers, and nabbing several exclusives for its platform (often long after they'd become available for pre-order on Steam). While the former is great for the industry as a whole, Epic's focus on exclusives left a bad taste in the mouth of many gamers, especially in the case of Metro Exodus.

Metro Exodus, for the unaware, is the latest entry in the survival horror-focused Metro series, and by all accounts, it's a pretty darn good game. Unfortunately, despite being available for pre-order on Steam for quite a while before release, Epic swooped in at the eleventh hour and persuaded publisher Deep Silver to distribute the title exclusively on the Epic Games Store for one year.

Several other timed Epic exclusives had similar arrangements, but their deals have long since expired (and thus the games are now being sold on other platforms). Metro Exodus was one of the last remnants of Epic's initial exclusive blitz, but its distribution agreement has finally come to an end as well.

Metro Exodus is officially coming to Steam on February 15, 2020. We don't know how much it'll cost yet (its store page doesn't list a price), but it will likely be $60 -- that's $10 less than what the game normally sells for on the Epic Games Store (even on launch). If you haven't had a chance to play the game yet, due to either personal platform preference or some other reason, be sure to add it to your Steam wishlist to be notified when it launches.

Aside from being an entertaining survival horror romp, Exodus has one of the most impressive implementations of Nvidia's RTX technology that we've seen to date. It also features Deep Learning Super Sampling, which can help improve performance at select resolutions.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/83925-metro-exodus-returning-steam-after-lengthy-epic-games.html

 

[m4a4]

Honestly? Meh. Too little too late. Far enough down on my list that I prob won't be playing it...

 

[Nitrotoxin]

I have been waiting, I refuse to give Epic my money. Can't wait to play this!

 

[fps4ever]

$70...no thank you.

 

[hahahanoobs]

The devs get more money from Epic sales. Why wouldn't that be your incentive to buy it on Epic? There is a very positive outcome by caving in to this deal. The protesting is selfish if anything. Supporting devs comes after proving a point in 2020? Weak.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Meh. Already forgot about it. The hype is gone, and now I certainly dont have time to play it. Might pick it up on sale.

The devs get more money from Epic sales. Why wouldn't that be your incentive to buy it on Epic? There is a very positive outcome by caving in to this deal. The protesting is selfish if anything. Supporting devs comes after proving a point in 2020? Weak.

The only selfish one here is you. People are clearly against the use of dirty unsustainable cash throwing tactics, and are not in favor of a platform with tons of missing features, security concerns, and usability issues. Demanding consumers look past these issues because YOU believe it is a good deal is beyond selfish, as well as completely tone deaf.

Supporting a dev after they bring their game to a much demanded platform is how capitalism works. If you dont think that sales should drive decisions, you are welcome to move to communist china.

 

[PEnnn]

The devs get more money from Epic sales. Why wouldn't that be your incentive to buy it on Epic? There is a very positive outcome by caving in to this deal. The protesting is selfish if anything. Supporting devs comes after proving a point in 2020? Weak.

Not necessarily. More sales on Steam with its huge database will provide much higher income, even at lower prices, for developers.

It's quite possible developers took a beating with the game being sold only on Epic.... which pissed off many potential customers....and hurt developers! That was an Epic failure....pun fully intended.

Why else would they suddenly offer to sell it Steam??

 

[pcnthuziast]

Super glad I got in on the Steam pre order and got to enjoy it on day 1 and on Steam.

 

[Gypsygib]

I wanted to buy the game day 1 as I loved the previous two, now my excitement is meh. Steam's portal is just so much more featured and enjoyable than the Epic store that buying it on Epic feels like I'm getting an inferior total experience and not as much as I paid for had I bought it on Steam. Don't even care which company, I just want the best experience...that's 100% Steam in every department, it's really not even close in user experience. Not sure who Epic hired to manage the store but there's been so little Store interface progress for so long that the Epic store is just a sad place that starting to feel like a failure..

 

[Johan S]

I'd rather buy doom eternal on march

 

[trgz]

I'd rather have seen it on Steam but I gave in and got the Gold version for less than £25. I've just now reinstalled it and am waiting for the second DLC.
Interesting point about the devs getting more of a cut through Epic, though the store/launcher is fairly pants, but money is money.

 

[Evernessince]

The devs get more money from Epic sales. Why wouldn't that be your incentive to buy it on Epic? There is a very positive outcome by caving in to this deal. The protesting is selfish if anything. Supporting devs comes after proving a point in 2020? Weak.

Only if you look at the commission number upfront. Otherwise steam charges 0% for keys sold outside of steam (Greenmangaming, humble, ect). Those represent a significant portion of the market. The only place a company actually pays the full 30% fee is on the steam marketplace and that's if you don't sell a lot of copies. If you are a AAA game, chance are you are paying 20%. In the end, if you don't like paying steam's commission, they literally give you the tools to sell your game elsewhere.

Trust is EARNED. EPIC has abandoned PC before for console. As far as I'm concerned, they are way in the red right now and I'll not touch their store until they start appearing like a legitimate business and not just a company that wants to hold PC gaming hostage once they get significant market share.

The funny part is, if you search Red Dead Redemption 2, the steam result already ranks higher then EPIC's store. Aside from being way more feature filled, steam clearly does a better job of advertising as well. Make sense though, SEO costs money.

 

[Puiu]

Too late, the franchise missed its chance to become something more than a niche game IP. The hype behind it was huge and then... it went "limp". I have the other 2 titles, but I won't buy this one.

 

[MaitieS]

It's a bit funny to see people pushing Steam monopoly yet they are usually against other monopoly companies

 

[Jaryn211]

Too late, the franchise missed its chance to become something more than a niche game IP. The hype behind it was huge and then... it went "limp". I have the other 2 titles, but I won't buy this one.

I dont understand the rationale. You wont buy this game on your preferred platform because the hype is gone? Do you need hype to play a game? I dont understand this line of thinking.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I dont understand the rationale.

There is currently no game play peer pressure.

 

[Jaryn211]

There is currently no game play peer pressure.

Because that totally explains why someone would need hype to play something, thank you for that informative response.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Because that totally explains why someone would need hype to play something, thank you for that informative response.

You are welcome. lol

 

[Adi6293]

I have been waiting, I refuse to give Epic my money. Can't wait to play this!

So you waited a year and now you going to pay a full price for a year old game?

 

[cliffordcooley]

That is nothing compared to what people pay in micro-transactions for games over one year old.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Meh. Already forgot about it. The hype is gone, and now I certainly dont have time to play it. Might pick it up on sale.

The only selfish one here is you. People are clearly against the use of dirty unsustainable cash throwing tactics, and are not in favor of a platform with tons of missing features, security concerns, and usability issues. Demanding consumers look past these issues because YOU believe it is a good deal is beyond selfish, as well as completely tone deaf.

Supporting a dev after they bring their game to a much demanded platform is how capitalism works. If you dont think that sales should drive decisions, you are welcome to move to communist china.

Cash incentives will never go away, and what happened to competition? I'm also one of the few it seems that is okay with letting things play out. DLSS and RT as other great examples. Tech is an evolving industry and greed is common. I use launchers to launch games, because that's where I bought them. If my games don't launch, then I have a problem.

Everyone just wants a reason to grab a pitchfork and think they are entitled to perfect feature rich products on day one.

Not gonna happen.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Not necessarily. More sales on Steam with its huge database will provide much higher income, even at lower prices, for developers.

I'd like to see your data on this.

Before you do, think about Sony Playstation permanent exclusives and how they helped sales and are free from public backlash....

 

[PEnnn]

I'd like to see your data on this.

Before you do, think about Sony Playstation permanent exclusives and how they helped sales and are free from public backlash....

Maybe one day we'll have something helpful on the Internet, and people would call it maybe a "search engine" or similar.....where some people can get their data instantly.....

But seriously, are you saying that EPIC has more users or sales than Steam?? Try again!
PS: By reading the comments the last few months right here, you'd see how many sales Epic lost!!

 

[Adi6293]

Not necessarily. More sales on Steam with its huge database will provide much higher income, even at lower prices, for developers.

It's quite possible developers took a beating with the game being sold only on Epic.... which pissed off many potential customers....and hurt developers! That was an Epic failure....pun fully intended.

Why else would they suddenly offer to sell it Steam??

What are you two talking about? Developers get paid a wage like all of us, the them it doesn't matter if the game sales because they're already got paid, its the publisher who benefits more from better deals with Epic or higher sales in general

 

[Puiu]

I dont understand the rationale. You wont buy this game on your preferred platform because the hype is gone? Do you need hype to play a game? I dont understand this line of thinking.

If that is what you understood then that's your problem. I won't buy it on principle.

If they accept anti-consumer practices then that means that they also accept the fact that some people will not buy it. Just because they finally released it on Steam doesn't mean that I agree with their past deal with Epic and what it means for the gaming market and consumers as a whole.

I have no idea why you are so quick to forget the BS they did (and the BS Epic is still doing).