Metro: Exodus is no longer available on Steam, but on the Epic Games Store. This surprising news shocked those who had pre-ordered the shooter on Valve’s platform yesterday. With this move, Epic Games shows that it is fully confronting Valve and is serious.
What happened? Yesterday at around 6 PM, a press release stated that the shooter Metro: Exodus is exclusively available on the Epic Games Store. And this, despite the fact that the game had been available for pre-order for some time on Steam and other online retailers. However, pre-order customers will still receive their games through the retailer they purchased from, including Steam.
It is now just not possible to purchase the game further on Steam.
This exclusivity deal between publisher Deep Silver and Epic Games lasts for one year. From mid-February 2020, Metro: Exodus will again be available on Steam.
Valve is severely impacted
How is Valve responding? With previous games that have taken a similar path, Valve has remained calm. Even when Ubisoft announced that The Division 2 would no longer be available on Steam, but rather on the Epic Games Store, the company stayed silent.
Now, however, there has been a reaction that shows how hard Valve has been hit.
On the Steam product page for Metro: Exodus, it is stated: “We consider the decision to remove the game for Steam customers to be unfair. Particularly after a long pre-sale phase. We would like to apologize to the Steam customers who expected Metro: Exodus to be available until February 15. However, we were only recently informed of the decision and had limited time to notify everyone of this.”
The loss of Metro: Exodus is not easy for Valve to digest, as the company has had a very good partnership with the publisher Deep Silver.
What does this mean for Steam: That Electronic Arts offers its own games via Origin and Bethesda titles like Fallout 76 through the Bethesda Launcher is already bad for Valve. However, the company can manage this.
But the fact that now publishers and developers are withdrawing who do not offer their own launchers and have been loyal partners of Steam previously is a severe blow. It is as if Epic Games has declared war on Valve. The company now needs to react somehow.
An uncertain future for Steam
Why are so many developers and publishers switching to the Epic Games Store? Valve maintained a monopoly on PC with Steam for a long time. For players, this was also acceptable and even pleasant, as they only had to install this launcher to play their favorite titles. However, as more and more companies are withdrawing, the number of launchers is increasing.
- For studios and publishers, this is good, as they can sell their games directly without having to give a part of the revenue to Steam.
- Steam takes 30 percent of the revenue, which companies find to be very high.
- Epic Games only wants 12 percent.
- Through the Epic Games Store, developers communicate more directly with customers, while on Steam, Valve is in between – meaning that the game pages and feeds are managed directly by the developers.
- The Epic Games Store currently has no user reviews and will even allow studios to disable this feature upon its introduction.
What implications does this have for us as customers? Everyone has to decide where they want to buy their games. Epic Games would, of course, like this to happen through its own store. And right now, the company is doing everything necessary for this.
Customers need to decide whether they want to install another launcher and give their money to Epic Games, or if they want to remain loyal to Valve and perhaps forgo some games – at least for a certain time until the exclusivity period is over.
How are the players reacting? The Epic Games Store is still viewed ambivalently. Some think it is good that Valve is now facing competition, while others criticize the aggressive approach of Epic Games.
Some hope that Valve will finally wake up and reconsider its strategy. Otherwise, more and more development studios and publishers could turn their backs on Steam.
