13 votes

Metro Exodus being pulled from Steam, now only on Epic Store (preoders will be honored)

8 comments

  1. emnii
    (edited )
    Link
    As of right now, you can still preorder on Steam, though the price is $10 cheaper on Epic. The most interesting thing to me is the note from Valve on the Steam store. May be the first time Valve...

    As of right now, you can still preorder on Steam, though the price is $10 cheaper on Epic. The most interesting thing to me is the note from Valve on the Steam store.

    Notice: 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.

    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.

    May be the first time Valve has expressed any opinion about a publisher moving their game from Steam to Epic. They also yanked down Deep Silver's announcement of the move to Epic that they had posted on the store page for Metro Exodus.

    edit: here's the link to Metro Exodus on Steam (while it lasts): https://store.steampowered.com/app/412020/Metro_Exodus/

    11 votes
  2. [2]
    TheJorro
    Link
    I'm not a fan of marketplace exclusivity. Even if they were to charge more on Steam to offset the cost, that would make more sense to me than this. It's inconvenient at worst, and money-saving at...

    I'm not a fan of marketplace exclusivity. Even if they were to charge more on Steam to offset the cost, that would make more sense to me than this.

    It's inconvenient at worst, and money-saving at best, but my feelings are suggesting there's more to it than that for me. I feel like this is an anti-consumer move on some level, by taking away choice of platforms.

    I've argued elsewhere on Tildes about how having yet another launcher was no big deal, we've got many. The one in question was the Epic launcher too! But restricting where you can buy a game digitally feels like it crosses a line to me, by limiting my ability to get it on my platform of choice. Steam is what I prefer all my games to be on, as much as possible. Sometimes I will buy a game on Humble, GOG, GMG, or Origin if they are offering a better price. That's how it goes. The availability of choice may be a mere mollification, but I can't shake the feeling that it's an important one.

    But to pull a game off of other services and suggest exclusivity because you've taken money for it when many own the rest of the series on Steam... that's not great. I'm still not even completely over how Mass Effect 3 is not on Steam when I have the first two games on it, it creates some minor inconveniences. It's at least an easier pill to swallow because it's EA using their own service, which I feel is an understandable way to limit their offering.

    Blegh, I feel scatterbrained about this. My rational mind says it's a stupid, silly thing, but my gut says I think it's underhanded and dishonest and I hope it blows up in their face.

    9 votes
    1. star69
      Link Parent
      I hear what you say, we do have several launchers as gamers already so it shouldn't be a big deal, but for me it kinda feels like it is.. It's just unecessary, I don't want some other piece of...

      I hear what you say, we do have several launchers as gamers already so it shouldn't be a big deal, but for me it kinda feels like it is.. It's just unecessary, I don't want some other piece of software just so I can play a few exclusive titles on your platform. If there was a game I absolutely had to play released, I might install the platform for the period that I'm actually playing but then I'd remove it afterwards. I like to keep things neat.

      In terms of pulling the title, I agree with your gut! It's a sly business deal that doesn't seem to take any account for the customer.

      1 vote
  3. [4]
    Diff
    Link
    Why are so many publishers moving to Epic? Are they making some tasty publisher incentives because Epic seems worse for the consumer in pretty much every way from everything I've heard so far.

    Why are so many publishers moving to Epic? Are they making some tasty publisher incentives because Epic seems worse for the consumer in pretty much every way from everything I've heard so far.

    5 votes
    1. [2]
      MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      At its most basic: Epic is charging 12% less to sell the game to consumers. That's a huge difference. On top of that they've also been offering other incentives including waiving the 5% fee for...

      At its most basic: Epic is charging 12% less to sell the game to consumers. That's a huge difference. On top of that they've also been offering other incentives including waiving the 5% fee for using Unreal Engine in their games and direct revenue guarantees.

      13 votes
      1. Deimos
        Link Parent
        It's closer to 18% less, though not necessarily that simple for a big game. The base split on Epic is 88/12 and 70/30 on Steam, but Steam's share drops to 25% above $10 million and 20 percent...

        It's closer to 18% less, though not necessarily that simple for a big game. The base split on Epic is 88/12 and 70/30 on Steam, but Steam's share drops to 25% above $10 million and 20 percent above $50 million. Epic's share is still lower the entire way though.

        11 votes
    2. emnii
      Link Parent
      Epic is giving publishers a bigger portion of the sales (88% vs Steam's 70%) and making some exclusivity deals to get publishers onboard (as they did with Rebel Galaxy Outlaw). I would also hazard...

      Epic is giving publishers a bigger portion of the sales (88% vs Steam's 70%) and making some exclusivity deals to get publishers onboard (as they did with Rebel Galaxy Outlaw).

      I would also hazard to assume that some of it has to do with how Steam is flooded with low quality games and Epic is more selective (for now) and can give a game like Metro Exodus more exposure on their storefront. The release of Metro Exodus might be the only game to come out on Epic store that week, so it can dominate the whole storefront. Steam will put a hundred games on sale that same week, and Metro might get a graphic at the top of the store for a day.

      6 votes
  4. jackson
    Link
    Obviously, everyone's going to follow the money. I'm curious as to how the Discord store will fare with their only 10% cut of revenue and options for subscription games. They've also announced...

    Obviously, everyone's going to follow the money. I'm curious as to how the Discord store will fare with their only 10% cut of revenue and options for subscription games.

    They've also announced that support and onboarding for indie developers for games will be coming soon, so that should definitely increase their share a little bit.

    Of course, they'll also need to expand the store to more platforms to get the most users (currently Windows only).

    2 votes