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Another third-party PC game has decided to go the "timed exclusive" route when it comes to their digital market of choice. Deep Silver and 4A Games announced today that Metro Exodus will now be a timed exclusive on the Epic Games Store. This is despite the fact that the game has been available for pre-order on Steam for quite some time now. However, at the end of today (January 28, 2019), you will no longer be able to pre-purchase the game through Steam.
The studios did say that all of those existing pre-orders for the game will still be honored. If you purchased the game before today, you will still get to play Metro Exodus on Steam on February 15, 2019. Those who pre-purchased the Gold Edition will also still get the Expansion Pack content on Steam when it's released. Those that ordered the Standard Edition on Steam will also have the option to purchase the Expansion Pass or standalone DLC on Steam when it releases.
Patches, much like the DLC releases, will happen simultaneously on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. It's also noted that those who pre-ordered from other sites like Humble will still receive their (Steam) key on the February 15 release date.
However, any future sales of the game will need to be made through the Epic Games Store, at least until the exclusive period ends on February 14, 2020.
Right now, Metro Exodus is going for $49.99 (USD) on the Epic Games Store. The Gold Edition is going for $74.99.
(UPDATE: This $50 price mentioned above is apparently only for the US only. Eurogamer has, at the very least, confirmed that the reduced price does not apply to the UK. And now back to the original post once again.)
It seems as though even Valve were caught by surprise at this news. A notice on the Metro Exodus Steam page reads as follows:
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.
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.
“We are delighted to partner with Epic to bring the digital PC version of Metro Exodus to market,†said Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO at Deep Silver. “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.â€
