Hey gang,

You may not have seen this, but this message dropped a few hours ago:

>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.

I don't know about anyone else, but this is an absolute lost sale for me. I refuse to infest my PC with thirty fucking launchers for every individual game, especially one as sketchy as the Epic one. Such a stupid move.

Hmm I can still pre-order it from Steam though at this moment. Is this something that's for certain regions only?

Oh just later on today it will be gone okay.

Yeah that's a pretty low thing to do especially when it's already on Steam. I wasn't planning on getting the game at launch or anything, but I'm not sure now either.

@casepb: If you pre order it now on steam like i did you will still get the steam version and you will still be able to buy the dlc on steam with feature updates.

also

Will Metro Exodus ever return to Steam?

Yes - Metro Exodus will return to Steam and on other store fronts after 14th February 2020.

Are we tired of all this positive competition yet? If one of my friends didn't already buy it for me on Steam it would have been a lost sale. I won't reward these business practices.

i get why this is happening, but none of this is to the customer's benefit, and epic might be wise to slow their roll to preserve goodwill.

Epic sure does like to be a bunch of hypocrites when it comes to this sorta thing. Hard to blame Deep Silver for taking what was likely a big bag of money to make this move. Feels really scummy though.

Its one thing for a publisher to want its own platform to sell its titles exclusively it is another for a 3rd party to want to do this

Man...this is so frustrating. Saving $10 is nice and all, but I have money in my Steam account I was planning to put towards this game. Also, the lack of cloud saves on Epic's store is more or less an automatic deal-breaker for me. I bounce between 2 PCs frequently, so that is a must-have feature. Looks like I'll be spending $10 more just for cloud saves, and I'm also forced to pre-order it now too. Guess I'll just refund it if the game is bad or runs like trash.

Side note, wasn't Tim Sweeney the guy that was all about open platforms on PC and worried about Microsoft's practices that could/would lead to the downfall of PC gaming? Seems like he's forgotten that schtick now that's he's had a taste of that Fortnite money...

Which domino will be the next to fall? MK11? Far Cry New Dawn ( I’m surprised we haven’t heard about Far cry jumping ship given that The Division 2 made the big move)?

@mellotronrules: So in the US at least, it is to the consumer's benefit. The publisher lowered the retail price from $59.99 to $49.99, citing the lower cut of sales that Epic takes.

@fezrock: oh... that actually does change the situation significantly. i'm legitimately surprised they passed ANY savings on to customers. good on them.

that said taking the customers for a ride while you do a last minute business deal is unsettling. also this whole concept of increasing storefront exclusivity is gross- love them or hate them i'm relatively certain valve never pushed for steam exclusivity deals (a ubisoft for example has been able to sell their stuff everywhere).

There seems to be a group of people that see paid exclusivity as a good thing. I wonder if the usually push back regarding this has recessed meaning Valve could also start to pay devs for exclusivity. If Valve took the gloves off and followed suit it looks like we might be seeing the beginnings of real mess.

Hooray more "healthy competition" taking the form of "if you want this game you must buy it from us". Epic and Steam competing to offer better services is good but arbitrary exclusivity is just a nakedly anti consumer move.

Thats a yikes from me.

I refuse to give in to Epic's hostage policy. They offer no incentive for players to switch over, and it wont work.

I will wait a year to play the game then.

@sombre: I was fine with the epic store bringing some competition to Steam until I had to reset my password when I reinstalled it and it took almost 24 hours for me to get the email. Then once I finally was able to login I bought Hades and had to wait for 2 hours for the game to show up in my library available for download, and now they're pulling this hostage crap with all these games instead of improving the actual launcher.

Think of it like this. The game has been pushed back a year, but when it does release it'll come with all the dlc and be bug free!

Thanks for testing it for me Epic store!

Even EA hasn't pulled all of its pre-Origin games from Steam. When you look worse than EA, that's a failure of epic proportions.

You know, this may not count as actual irony, but it is at least irony-adjacent to consider that the company that threw its weight around to open up true cross-platform play on a huge scale is doing this sort of thing.

I don't have any problems with extra launchers or storefronts to buy shit on but this is a real obnoxious way to go about this.

What exactly is "sketchy" about the Epic store/launcher?

What incentive is Steam giving you to stay?

I'm not really all that interested in playing Metro but it's not really a big deal for me. Epic was offering Edith Finch for free and I always wanted to play that. So I just downloaded the thing, installed the game and got to play it completely for free - and the whole process of getting the launcher running and installing the game took maybe less than 5 minutes.

Not to pull that cranky old man bit, but back in the 90's and early 2000's every single game came with it's own proprietary installer and launcher - we all somehow managed to get by.

Thats not to say I don't get it. When you amass a library you probably want to stick to it. Lord knows when I switched to PS4 at the beginning of this generation I actually felt a silly sensation of loss because I had so many achievements unlocked on my xbox account and basically nothing on PSN - like I was losing some part of my identity by starting "over" on this new platform. Trust me that stuff doesn't really matter. I have a gaming PC, a PS4 and recently got an XB1X. At this point the only thing I care about is where I get the best experience and deals. If Red Dead 2 works better on the XB1X then I'll play it there. If Dishonored 3 ever comes out then I'll probably get it on PC, on whatever launcher it gets attached to. When Death Stranding finally releases, whatever it is, I'll happily dust off my PS4 and get on that. It's really not worth it to get so attached to libraries and content providers, just game wherever it's the best deal for you. Sure Steam is nice but if Epic is offering you the exact same game for less money, then I dunno, it seems silly to pay more just so that you have to click one thing less on your desktop.

Can we just go back to big box PC games with twelve DVD's, please? No? Never? Well, fuck.

Yeah, capitalism sucks and free market competition is overrated.

First I'll say I do have an epic account, I made one back when they gave Shadow Complex free years ago and have been logging on every couple of weeks to nab the free games, so I've already got past the yet another account annoyance(This is account #6 with the others being Steam, Origin, Uplay, Blizzard, and GOG).

With that said, this makes me want to keep my money far away from the Epic store. I already have reservations after just last year getting so many "someone tried to access your account" messages I tried to just delete the account, and with the lack of features in comparison to steam so far like cloud saves and the forums(yeah, about 80% of them are toxic cesspits, but the other 20% is extremely useful for technical issues and especially for indie games that are constantly being updated). The whole "Buy it for us or don't buy it at all" thing they've got going is a huge turn off. Yes other big publishers have done it before and i've begrudgingly used their stores(though thankfully Origin and Uplay have both become far better, Origin was bad but usable to start, uplay was straight up avoid any game with it for a while), but I can't complain to much if the makers of the game want to sell it themselves with no middle man. With this though, it's just paying a bunch of third party publishers/small indie devs to not release their games on other platforms. I think this is the first one that actually has any benefit for consumers at all(with the lower price, though I don't necessarily consider it a great trade of from losing the normal steam features I like).

Also a really minor thing...but I kinda hate having games split across different platforms, IE I don't' want a trilogy spread across the windows store, steam, and uplay or anything like that.

Wow, seems like the sort of thing they should have decided before posting it on the steam store. Got no problem with them doing it generally though, Steam should pull their finger out imo athough it doesn't sound like Epic Store is any better...

Ah well, GOG it is... you might not have all the games but at least you don't fuck me around.

Just like The Division 2. It doesn't bother me one way or another for more than one reason (I will be buying this game, and The Division 2 on the X, and if I had a good PC to play them on, I don't necessarily mind buying it where you have to get it), but I think Steam better start thinking about what to do. I mean, it's easy to think that Valve will be totally fine without them or several other publishers, but still, it's not a good sign.

I really don't get why people love Steam so much. Like seriously, what feature have they introduced in the last several years to improve the average user experience? I feel like cloud saves and automatic patch downloading have been in place for at least that long. In the meantime you have Valve essentially giving up on content curation, letting tons of crap into the marketplace, all while still taking a 30% cut of sales (for what, exactly?). Having two or three applications on your computer to launch games from is really not a hassle. People have no problem with Blizzard having their own launcher.

I'm not defending the Epic store per se, I've never used it, but this idea that some people will give a game a hard pass just because it's not on Steam baffles me.

@tds418: I like the steam controller and built-in support for all gamepads for every game. Also, it's just cumbersome to have to go through so many storefronts to open games and it's much better to have everything in one library.

Nobody ever asked (that I know of) for any of these other storefronts and the only benefit is really to the publishers, it's a free market though and they can do what they want. I won't lie though, it has been one of the early reasons i hardly game at all anymore so there is that benefit to my productivity lol.

@tds418: It's also not on any other platforms. No Humble Bundle, no Amazon, no nothing. The price of the game going down $10 compared to steam is actually making it go up compared to some non-steam sites, not to mention that the regional pricing is still early and far from comprehensive. This isn't just pulling it off steam, it's pulling it off numerous storefronts and making the game more expensive/inaccessible for plenty of people.

Losing features like cloud saves can be a big deal for folks. Having a large player community in one place that's a couple of clicks away is fantastic for resolving issues you're having with a game. There are tons of reasons that players actually prefer their games being on steam, because it has so many features and benefits that the Epic store lacks. They could have launched the store with a complete set of features and offered true competition through providing a better service for both developers and players. Instead, they're being blatantly anti-consumer with this strategy that benefits only themselves and maybe the developers (that remains to be seen).

This isn't even remotely the same as Blizzard having their own launcher, because Blizzard isn't advertising/selling their games on steam or Uplay and pulling it weeks/days before release. Blizzard has a platform for blizzard/activision games, and that is totally fine, and in fact ideal. Epic is actively paying third party publishers to abandon other storefronts, and the rumor is that these deals are often being struck without the devs even knowing half the time.

Honestly, I don't buy many games at launch, but Metro Exodus was definitely in the running to be one of the few this year that I would. Until this. I understand why developers are moving to Epic, and I hope it works out for them, but I can't support them. I mean, you tell me I can have a phenomenal steak, maybe the best steak I'll ever eat, at a discount price, and the bulk of that money will go directly into the pockets of all the people who did the hard work to bring that steak to my plate, but I have to eat it in the bathroom of a Taco Bell...yeah, I'm gonna pass. I'm just not that hungry.

• i purchase the game once and (if available) i also have it on macOS and linux
• easy mod integration
• they support all the common gamepads
• big picture mode
• in home streaming
• library sharing
• easy screenshot management and hosting
• really, really fast downloads
• easy gifting

that's just the stuff i legitimately use. there's a host of other features (hardware-agnostic VR support, straightforward refunds, etc.) i don't use, but it's tough to argue that steam isn't a comprehensive platform. there's a lot of terrible cruft on steam- but as someone who uses real people (friends, written media, giant bomb) as my 'discovery engine,' none of the curation and/or discoverability shortcomings factor in. i don't browse, rely on steam reviews, or trust an algorithm to suggest a game...i just have never engaged with any of that because i haven't needed to.

i'd like to see epic succeed by providing a superior experience- not by dictating where i'll have to buy something.

I look forward to some intrepid soul cobbling together a Metalauncher of some sort. Though I suppose you could add things to Steam manually...

That's so fucked >.<

I've been a huge series supporter and praiser over the years since it's first release; really really loved those firs two games. And to see them go this exclusive bullshit route just feels scummy to the bone, especially the part where it was advertised and then pulled from the original platform of choice.

@cursethesemetalhands: I think a more apt comparison is if you were served possibly the best steak in the world, at a lower price, but you couldn’t sit at your favorite table in the restaurant and the cutlery was different. Eating the steak in a bathroom is more like if you were forced to play Metro on a shitty pc, which is not the case. The moment you launch into the game you still get to fully enjoy it - the act of launching into it from a different program shouldn’t be that traumatic. Just rebind the screenshot key to F12 and you’re good to go.

Here's a hot take the Uplay store and Origin are both Superior store fronts compared to the epics game launcher. It's just a bad piece of software and it wouldn't surprise me that it would snoop around in my pc's files system. Also no cloud save support, bad interface i am not using a tablet to browse your store, storefront designer...

I think GOG is a nice example of how you do a compelling store with old reworked games that work on the latest systems as a sell point. (yes i know thronebreaker was exclusive for the first month) but that was a month and not a year. Just going around and throwing money at every publisher isn't the right way IMO to make people jump from stores, and it tends to lead to piracy.

@jellycube: at least they got a friends list....

@jellycube: I think having a barebones store right now is all part of Epic’s plan. That way they get headlines and exposure every time they add a feature that Steam already has, as well as giving them time to bug-test and hopefully roll out competent updates.

@mellotronrules Fair enough, though I think some of those features have been in longer than a few years (which was my point – what has Steam done recently with the piles of cash they have).

Also, I think people saying that other storefronts should compete without relying on exclusives don't really understand how competition works. If Epic (or some other potential competitor) only offers games that are available on Steam, people on Steam will have little incentive to switch over even if the user experience is better (I'm not saying that it is). That's why monopolies/market power is dangerous – once consumers feel locked in, it can be hard for even superior products to break through.

They should have just released on Epic game store at a reduced price. Then it's not exclusive, but still a good incentive for people to grab the Epic version if they don't care about the myriad of features Steam offers.

The way they went about this is just straight-up scummy though.

@tds418 --- I think that actually makes it worse for Epic. These are features that have existed for years on all the different game stores, and yet Epic thinks they can just come busting in with a shit store that lacks all these features and still compete?

I am also one of those weird people that likes Big Picture mode and the controller config settings steam supports. I game on two different PCs and am constantly switching between controller input types regularly depending on what's next to my couch.

Now that would be a much better way to go about it.

Instead now we are getting into the platform exclusivity bullshit wars that were the worst part about consoles, and just as recently publishers started finding the middle ground on PC. Instead Epic comes along and starts out their storefront with the worst trend that died out half a decade ago. (yes im aware the exclusivity is nowhere near as harsh as the console one) Without offering the consumers any other competitive benefits while still having a worse service offering. Fucking smashing good job, makes me just love them with hugs and kisses.

So far the often parroted mantra of "competition will be good for consumers" has been anything but. Someone should send out postcards when it will finally kicks in.

Well this at least has helped me decide whether or not I should pick up Metro Exodus...

@jellycube said:

Someone should post this image every time the term "healthy competition" is mentioned.

I knew it didn't have cloud saves but... oof.

@big_denim They are releasing the game at a reduced price on the Epic store. $49.99 instead of $59.99.

@tds418: I had meant they should keep the game on Steam in addendum to the reduced price release on Epic.

You have to look at it from the perspective of the publisher though, not just the consumer and storefront. Valve exerts their monopoly market pressure largely towards publishers (not consumers) by extracting profits from them they should not be able to in a competitive marketplace. So why would you keep supporting a storefront that is ripping you off?

Lol, I don't care. Any form of competition to a monopolistic Steam is great as far as I'm concerned. I'm happy to support Epic in their endeavors. Any true competitor to Steam is going to be "inconvenient", that's just the reality of it. It's just one more icon on you desktop to click, ... super-hard work.

@bollard said:

Well this at least has helped me decide whether or not I should pick up Metro Exodus...

@jellycube said:

Someone should post this image every time the term "healthy competition" is mentioned.

I knew it didn't have cloud saves but... oof.

Also not listed is steams excellent controller support, which is practically plug and play no matter what you like to use, and Big Picture mode, which matters a lot to people who play on TVs. I remember the days of using Joy2Key and while Steam isn't perfect, it's so much better.

Oh yeah, and the Epic store doesn't even have a goddamn search bar last time I checked.

In other news it turns out neither THQ Nordic, who owns the publisher Koch Media, nor 4A Games, the developer, knew anything about the deal and THQ Nordic is now on damage control.

https://twitter.com/THQNordic/status/1090217923434737664

@brackstone said:

@bollard said:

Well this at least has helped me decide whether or not I should pick up Metro Exodus...

@jellycube said:

Someone should post this image every time the term "healthy competition" is mentioned.

I knew it didn't have cloud saves but... oof.

Also not listed is steams excellent controller support, which is practically plug and play no matter what you like to use, and Big Picture mode, which matters a lot to people who play on TVs. I remember the days of using Joy2Key and while Steam isn't perfect, it's so much better.

Oh yeah, and the Epic store doesn't even have a goddamn search bar last time I checked.

In other news it turns out neither THQ Nordic, who owns the publisher Koch Media, nor 4A Games, the developer, knew anything about the deal and THQ Nordic is now on damage control.

https://twitter.com/THQNordic/status/1090217923434737664

Controller Support, In-Home Streaming, Broadcasting, Library Sorting, Friends List and Chat, and Screenshots all apply to non-steam shortcuts.

User reviews and Wishlists are things you can expect any store to implement.

Mod distribution and Item Trading are trickier, because that's API stuff a game developer needs to implement, but Epic already do it with Unreal.

Forums, Guides, and Groups are not selling points of Steam (IMO). Plus you're never going to get anything like this in a Steam guide.

But yeah, cloud saves and family sharing are definitely big minuses.

@tds418: the 'what has steam done for me recently' argument i have no issues with. it's true- as a customer, i have very little sense of what valve is doing on a regular basis to improve my experience on the platform.

and when epic presents a value proposition that says, 'you'll get more for your money here' i'll jump ship willingly. the reduced price for metro is appealing, there's no denying that.

but every other incentive (aside from free games)- be it paid exclusivity, their influencer program, or the rev split seems 100% aimed at publishers. and that's something that as a i customer cannot bring myself to care about. if the favourable rev split was guaranteed to go 100% to devs (so maybe in the case of small indie teams or self published games)...then i can feel better about it. but for the games operating at a larger scale... i don't trust a better rev split = a proportional increase to the devs.

As I said above, I think exclusivity (paid or otherwise) is necessary for there to be viable competition to Steam, otherwise people will just stay with the platform they feel locked into and no one will get the revenue needed to develop a feature-comparable competitor. But your other points and people pointing to feature differences are of course making valid arguments. That's why I'm not defending the Epic store itself, just the notion that competition would overall be a good thing.

Monopolies create market inefficiencies - that's what makes them monopolies. In this case, the main inefficiency is Valve taking a larger cut than they should be able to from publishers/developers. Since publishers/developers are the main parties being harmed here, of course they are the ones that are going to be supporting other stores at the expense of Steam. If that forces Steam to lower their cut and otherwise invest in their platform, the market will be more efficient and everyone except those working at Valve (including, at least indirectly, consumers) will benefit.

Makes sense, because this is a very bad business decision to do last minute while the game is already available for preorder, and my guess is Koch Media is probably ran by developers with not so good marketing/ branding experience. You should never make your customers feel like you are taking something away from them especially at the last minute after a lot have spent money. Now if this was done in the beginning it wouldn't be a problem, also not telling your co-publisher about it is just kinda crazy.

By the way the reduced price is primarily applicable to US.

In a lot of other regions, where Steam offers regional pricing due to income and currency weight discrepancy, Epic store does not, so the game is not only not less expensive in those regions, it is now more expensive.

(in EU for example the price remained exactly the same despite the move)