Metro Exodus Is an Epic Store Exclusive

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Deep Silver and Epic Games have announced a partnership to make the digital distribution of the PC version of Metro Exodus an Epic Store exclusive. The game will be available for $49.99 on the Epic Store which is $10 cheaper than the current pricing on Steam. Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney touts the 88/12 revenue split as a reason why Metro Exodus is coming to the Epic Store. The Steam Store has a 70/30 revenue split. All Steam preorders will be honored and those customers will receive their game on the Steam platform. All DLC will be available for purchase for Steam customers. The Epic Store will not have timed exclusive DLC as all releases will be simultaneous across both versions. The Metro Exodus Steam Community page is located here. The game is currently still available for purchase on Steam.

Valve posted this notification on the Metro Exodus Steam page. 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.

"Metro Exodus is amazing and is deservedly one of the most anticipated PC titles of 2019," said Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic. "We are partnering with Deep Silver to launch Metro Exodus, underpinned by Epic's marketing support and commitment to offering an 88% revenue split, enabling game creators to further reinvest in building great games and improving the economics of game stores for everybody."
 
huh

I wanted to buy this and use it as a TV title for desert exploration with my wife. I hated the gameplay of 2033 but still want to support the dev from Ukraine. With Epic in the picture, that's not going to happen.
 
I would be curious to see if there is a dip in sales due to this. What if it were larger than the gap that steam takes away? I know a lot said they won't buy into this exclusive epic stuff but I wonder if that is a large number or not.

I guess if after release it appears on steam we will know that answer.
 
dgz said:
huh

I wanted to buy this and use it as a TV title for desert exploration with my wife. I hated the gameplay of 2033 but still want to support the dev from Ukraine. With Epic in the picture, that's not going to happen.
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You still have a few hours to purchase this on Steam. I'm not buying this title out of principle.

Epic buying exclusivity on PC third party titles needs to end NOW. I love the first two games, but I can't support this horrible practice.

Edit: It's officially absent from Steam. Fuck Epic, and fuck Deep Silver.
 
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I'd be tempted to buy it now on steam to get it on steam but I don't believe Deep Silver's supposed word that they would support the game on steam. And while Steam would probably be foolish to shut down the community forums for the game, I wouldn't blame them.

Anyway, Deep Silver/4A Games, you lost a sale and I'll see you in a few years if you ever bother to release your game on GOG, DRM FREE for $10 or less.
 
Darunion said:
I would be curious to see if there is a dip in sales due to this. What if it were larger than the gap that steam takes away? I know a lot said they won't buy into this exclusive epic stuff but I wonder if that is a large number or not.

I guess if after release it appears on steam we will know that answer.
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I have a sneaking suspicion that Epic won't make sales data publically known so that we could do such comparisons. But I think we'll know in short order this year if the publishers agreeing to these deals now release on multiple platforms in the future. I believe that publishers are making a big mistake in thinking that the entire Fortnite demographic will be their market.
 
I guess it was smart to announce this... I just pre-ordered it on Steam when I was intending to buy it awhile after release since I'm trying to save some cash up at the moment. But I love the previous two titles, I own them on Steam, and I don't trust Epic Games.
 
Great news for those in the UK rather than the US: it'll cost the same on Epic as it would have on Steam, £50. Thanks for passing those savings on to us, Deep Silver & Epic!
 
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Bigbacon said:
Maybe both would ve good?

I mean huge anticipated game exclusive to a brand new service?
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I feel like that makes sense. instead of trying to forcibly channel people through a certain 'store' just sell in both and maybe offer an extra item or discount in epic. No more exclusive things though, maybe get a free dlc but not one locked only to that platform.

I dunno I am not a publisher, just a gamer that likes his steam library. Though if I think back, I was a bit against the idea of steam in the beginning too.
 
I initially had thought that Tim Sweeney was a good guy and that the Epic Store would bring positive competition for PC digital retailers, but exclusivity deals victimize the whole community / industry by killing competition of quality of platform and service to make it all about who can throw the most money at developers and make the backroom exclusivity deal first.

What Epic is doing, paying for exclusives so that Epic doesn't have to compete with other platforms, will result in lower quality among PC games platforms because it removes the onus from being on the quality of the platform to being simply about who can offer which 3rd-party developer how much. Exclusivity deals are paying so that you don't have to compete against others.

The long-term effect will be reduced pressure for platforms to improve their quality of service, and of an unhealthy and stressful 'us versus them' mentality among gamers.

What Epic is doing is akin to paying for a spot on a sports podium without participating in the event, and screwing the integrity of the whole sport over.

I think that these actions should be lambasted by gamers, and that the participants in these foul plays, who are willing to sell out the whole picture for their short-term selfish greed, deserve to be boycotted.


Also, Metro Exodus will release on Steam and other platforms in 2020:

https://www.pcgamer.com/metro-exodu...c-store-but-steam-preorders-will-be-honoured/
Update: A later press release we received from Deep Silver explained that the game will return to Steam a year after release. "Metro Exodus will return to Steam and on other store fronts after 14 February 2020."
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I guess that if I'm going to pay to play Exodus it won't be until then.
 
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They should just market games like any other commodity. The developer sells keys to various stores for a set wholesale price, those stores charge whatever the hell markup they want. If Deep Silver want $40 a sale, then they should get that directly from the store, and then let the stores fight it out on final pricing and positioning. No holdbacks, percentages, etc.
 
Well, fuck this.

It has finally happened. A title I have interest in has wound up in a store other than Steam.

So now I have to decide. Stick to my one store only policy, or give in in order to play a title.

I'll probably wind up having to pass on Metro Exodus unfortunately :(
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Well, fuck this.

It has finally happened. A title I have interest in has wound up in a store other than Steam.

So now I have to decide. Stick to my one store only policy, or give in in order to play a title.

I'll probably wind up having to pass on Metro Exodus unfortunately :(
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You can still pre order it on steam right now, until later today (not sure what time). You'll still have their return policy if you don't like it.
 
Jim Kim said:
Meh
I don't have an issue with buying it from the Epic store. That being said I'm still not going to pre-purchase a game , I'll wait until after the reviews are out (namely ACG's)
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Well, I have enough of an FPS backlog that I can wait a few years before needing to decide on this one. Maybe by then they will have changed their minds? :p
 
Delicieuxz said:
Also, Metro Exodus will release on Steam and other platforms in 2020:

https://www.pcgamer.com/metro-exodu...c-store-but-steam-preorders-will-be-honoured/


I guess that if I'm going to pay to play Exodus it won't be until then.
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That is good news. As mentioned above, I can wait. I have a backlog. No rush. This will give me time to figure out what I want to do about my GPU upgrade too :p (and possibly get the game at a better price)

I wanted to jump on the 2080ti bandwagon for the latest titles at 40k, but I balked with all the failures that were going on, and now I think its too late to buy one.

(My philosophy is that when it comes to high end GPU's you have to buy them at launch to get as much time out of them as possible, otherwise the already too high price tag becomes even less worth it)
 
Jim Kim said:
Meh
I don't have an issue with buying it from the Epic store. That being said I'm still not going to pre-purchase a game , I'll wait until after the reviews are out (namely ACG's)
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Whats ACG? I haven't had a good site to read reviews on as most of them are bat shit crazy and turned all SJW on me.
 
Impossible. People on this forum kept saving this wouldn't happen. More AAA games leaving Steam? Say it ain't so.

Darunion said:
I feel like that makes sense. instead of trying to forcibly channel people through a certain 'store' just sell in both and maybe offer an extra item or discount in epic. No more exclusive things though, maybe get a free dlc but not one locked only to that platform.

I dunno I am not a publisher, just a gamer that likes his steam library. Though if I think back, I was a bit against the idea of steam in the beginning too.
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I think this is what they should've done. Raised the price to $65 or whatever it would be after the fee difference, charge $50 on Epic's platform. People can then choose if they think Steam is worth an extra $12-15.
 
homernoy said:
You still have a few hours to purchase this on Steam. I'm not buying this title out of principle.

Epic buying exclusivity on PC third party titles needs to end NOW. I love the first two games, but I can't support this horrible practice.
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I wonder if it's some shitty ploy to score more sales on Steam from folks who really just don't want to have split game libraries. I have nothing personal against EPIC store but they are new to the digital storefront game and frankly I don't want to test drive that myself nor split my libraries into a myriad of services. It's already enough that I was forced to split into Origin due Assassin's Creed and I really would rather not. Of course they get a better deal as EPIC's platform is not established. I wish them well with their store but at present, it's a clunky mess. If 4A really has the balls to pull the game from Steam, I might cancel my preorder or request Steam refund (just because this is really not a good for business tactic and it really fails those fans who game them money via preorder). I loved the previous instances and really wanted to support them with my preoder as there are few devs I would show support (CDPR is one of them btw).
 
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Flogger23m said:
I think this is what they should've done. Raised the price to $65 or whatever it would be after the fee difference, charge $50 on Epic's platform. People can then choose if they think Steam is worth an extra $12-15.
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This would probably work, as I already paid $10 more for it on Steam just so I can have it on Steam. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would.
 
honestly review shit bomb the previous games of devs that are going exlusives only on epic store.
 
Epic is trying and probably paying to get exclusives so people use their store. I got steam because of Half-Life 2. That was the exclusive. Battle.net because of blizzard games, origin because of EA exclusives. I know people (my family included) with both ps4 and xbox one because of exclusives. It's crappy and anti-consumer, but it's a proven method of getting people into your ecosystem. Epic got something like 8 billion in funding this year, those people will want their money back and plenty of growth as well. Whatever they were before, epic is big business now.
 
Flogger23m said:
Impossible. People on this forum kept saving this wouldn't happen. More AAA games leaving Steam? Say it ain't so.



I think this is what they should've done. Raised the price to $65 or whatever it would be after the fee difference, charge $50 on Epic's platform. People can then choose if they think Steam is worth an extra $12-15.
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We know steam isn't going to bomb out but hopefully it will wake Valve up from their slumber and actually figure out they need to compete now.
 
My main issue with multiple stores and launchers is that they don't coordinate updates. They are smart enough to not update while you are playing a game on their service but not smart enough to not update when playing a game on another service. But if I don't let them auto-start you get bombarded with updates when you do want to use their store.
 
Flogger23m said:
I think this is what they should've done. Raised the price to $65 or whatever it would be after the fee difference, charge $50 on Epic's platform. People can then choose if they think Steam is worth an extra $12-15.
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The price difference is ~$10.80. I agree with you they should have just left the game on both platforms and kept customer's happy, users who wanted to save money could still have jumped ship to Epic. (or charged $59.99 on both platforms and make more money off the Epic sales, which is what any company not getting paid by Epic would do)
 
Flogger23m said:
I think this is what they should've done. Raised the price to $65 or whatever it would be after the fee difference, charge $50 on Epic's platform. People can then choose if they think Steam is worth an extra $12-15.
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See I think that's exactly how it should have been handled so the consumer decides if a store front is worth it to them. I generally pay more for my GoG games because I can't buy the GoG version from discounting stores like GMG, bit I pay that extra amount because to me DRM-Free is worth it to me. Unfortunately they probably couldn't do this with Metro Exodus because IIRC steam actually dictates in their terms that you can't sell your game on another digital store front for a lower price than on Steam. So if they charged $50 on Epic they'd have to also make it $50 on steam or be in violation of steam's policy.
 
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Cobra said:
This would probably work, as I already paid $10 more for it on Steam just so I can have it on Steam. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would.
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Ehhh... I'm not into pre-ordering stuff.. and I have the Epic store for some stuff already.

That being said, if I did get it through Epic and then they canned it or something, then it would most likely be "pirated" or charged back through my CC company.
 
SomeoneElse said:
Storefront exclusives are just as stupid as console exclusives.....They lose so much opportunity in sales. I don't get why developers continue to do this. Unless they are offered kickbacks for the exclusive sales it doesn't make sense to me.
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I think some people here massively overestimate how much the average PC gamer cares about installing another free launcher on their computer. The developer won't lose many sales, and whatever they will lose will likely be made up by the increased cut they will get from every copy sold on the EGS opposed to Steam.

This isn't like console exclusives where you are physically locked from playing a game due to hardware you have to purchase. All you have to do is simply install another free launcher to play this game on your existing PC. This is hardly a barrier.
 
Flogger23m said:
Impossible. People on this forum kept saving this wouldn't happen. More AAA games leaving Steam? Say it ain't so.



I think this is what they should've done. Raised the price to $65 or whatever it would be after the fee difference, charge $50 on Epic's platform. People can then choose if they think Steam is worth an extra $12-15.
Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't say most. Some are just games made by publisher with own store. However most are available across different platforms and ones I've been interested in have not been exclusive to one particular store. FWIW, good store or bad, it's a sure way to piss people off and lose a sale altogether. I'm personally still on the border about Metro and am sure as well not buying on EPIC (even though I think they are a great company and I love their games and all that stuff). I really don't want a split library and yet another account. Especially not in such a forced way as is the case here. Almost like 4A/DS put both thumbs up their supporter's asses. Way to get positive fan rep!
 
exlink said:
I think some people here massively overestimate how much the average PC gamer cares about installing another free launcher on their computer. The developer won't lose many sales, and whatever they will lose will likely be made up by the increased cut they will get from every copy sold on the EGS opposed to Steam.

This isn't like console exclusives where you are physically locked from playing a game due to hardware you have to purchase. All you have to do is simply install another free launcher to play this game on your existing PC. This is hardly a barrier.
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If that was the only problem! This not only pushes people onto a new unknown platform with questionable long term support but mainly fragments friends and achievements. This is particularly bad if a game has any kind of coop or online support. So this decision is they are trying to push everyone over on a platform that gives them a more favorable return but how users will react to that is questionable. They may in fact invite piracy from the same fans that supported previous games. Limiting options is rarely a good market strategy especially not one that can be done by a new player.
 
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