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Updated: Metro Exodus to be pulled from Steam as game becomes an Epic Store exclusive

Updated: Metro Exodus to be pulled from Steam as game becomes an Epic Store exclusive

Update:Valve has said that Metro Exodus will be dropped from its store "later today" after publisher Deep Silver palled up with Epic Games. 

In a post on the project's store page, the Steam firm expressed disappointment that the publisher has opted to partner with its competition, especially after the title had been available to pre-order for five months. Existing purchases will be fulfilled via Steam. 

The game is out in two weeks. 

"Later today, sales of Metro Exodus will be discontinued on Steam due to a publisher decision to make the game exclusive to another PC store," Valve wrote. 

"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 apologise 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."

As far as we are aware, this is the first time that Valve has commented publicly in any way on its newfound competition in Epic Games. 

Original story: The latest chapter in Deep Silver and 4A's series of Metro game adaptions is going to be exclusive to the Epic Store on PC.

That's according to a release the Fortnite firm put out today, in which it said that Metro Exodus will be available "solely through the Epic Games store".

In itself, that's not particularly surprising - especially as Epic is trying to nail down partners for its newly-announced storefront. What is strange is the fact that Metro Exodus is currently available to buy via Steam at the time of writing, with pre-orders having been live for the project since August 2018.

Epic says in the release that: "Any customer with an outstanding pre-order for Metro Exodus on PC through any digital retailer will receive their game as expected," which based on other media outlets' communication with Deep Silver means that if consumers pre-ordered on Steam then they'll be downloading the game from Steam.

Not all that exclusive, is it?

“Metro Exodus is amazing and is deservedly one of the most anticipated PC titles of 2019,” said Epic founder and boss Tim Sweeney.

“We are partnering with Deep Silver to launch Metro Exodus, underpinned by Epic’s marketing support and commitment to offering an 88 per cent revenue split, enabling game creators to further reinvest in building great games and improving the economics of game stores for everybody.”

Deep Silver CEO Dr. Klemens Kundratitz added: "We are delighted to partner with Epic to bring the digital PC version of Metro Exodus to market. 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.”

Epic's new storefront was announced at the end of 2018 boasting a competitive 88/12 per cent revenue share. A rather mid-tier and indie line-up was announced for the platform. The Fortnite firm has since brought Ubisoft on board, with the French publishing giant launching The Division 2 on Epic rather than Steam, which is certainly a good get.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.