Tuesday, January 29th 2019
Steam and THQ Nordic Issue Statements on Metro Exodus Exclusivity on Epic Games Store
We reported yesterday how Metro Exodus unceremoniously left Steam for a year-long exclusivity deal on the Epic Game store, one of many steps that Epic and Tencent are taking to challenge the Goliath of PC gaming storefronts itself. Valve was quick in putting out a rare statement yesterday, which has been updated since to reflect the status of the game on Steam, and it can be seen below verbatim, with THQ Nordic's take on this matter past the break.
Source:
THQ Nordic on Twitter
Notice: Sales of Metro Exodus have been 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.THQ Nordic, likely sensing the tide against them, put out a statement on Twitter shifting all responsibility to Koch Media GmbH, saying the latter entity owns the Metro IP, even though THQ Nordic acquired Koch Media in February last year. Take the statement below for what you will, but it does nothing to assuage those wanting the game accessible on Steam anytime soon:
The decision to publish Metro Exodus as a timed Epic Store exclusive was made entirely on Koch Media's side as Metro is their intellectual property. They are a sister company of THQ Nordic (Vienna), which is the reason why we can and will not comment on this matter. We do not want to categorically exclude the possibility of timed exclusives for any of our games in the future, but speaking in the here and now, we definitely want to have the players choose the platform of their liking and make our portfolio available to as many outlets as possible.
46 Comments on Steam and THQ Nordic Issue Statements on Metro Exodus Exclusivity on Epic Games Store
It's not because I have to install another launcher, but because steam always have regional pricing for people like me that stay in 3rd world countries.
On epic store launcher it's gonna be us$50. regardless on where your countries is. Before on steam if I preorder it's around $25, the reason I don't pre-order is because.... I just don't do pre-order games without reading the release review first.
Using USA standard pricing it's so expensive for us. (For comparison, minimum wage in USA is about $10/hour or so right ? well in my country it's more or less $250/MONTH !)
Guess I'm gonna buy it on steam next year... the price should comes down a lot after a year or so..... or maybe they release the goty version with all dlc included too next year
If I were THQ right now, I'd be praying the Epic Games Storefront picks up in popularity.
The first two games weren't that impressive aside from the graphics side of things. I didn't care much for them. This new one might be good, might be bad....perhaps mediocre....
STALKER added in weapon customization for Clear Sky - didn't make the game much better. I still enjoyed it, but just because you can customize weapons doesn't mean it's good.
I got to customize weapons in Tomb Raider (2013) - didn't make the game any better (in fact, the game was kinda shitty - Lara came off as a cross of the Terminator, John Wick and Rambo. Can't be killed, falls from great heights over and over again. She shoots and melees people like John Wick and handles a bow like Rambo from First Blood: Part 2)
I don't think the atmosphere was much different than the felling you got from STALKER: CoP, in Metro games - kinda creepy, but not as well done as CoP.
I don't feel the new game adds anything new to what is already out there. Maybe someday, a year or three after it releases I might pick up a copy when it's cheap, but based off the first two games, I'm don't feel the need to get it right now, regardless of what digital site sells it. If you want to enjoy the game, go for it. Doesn't hurt my feelings.
As a consumer, a game being forced on just the Epic store with no user reviews does not help me, at all. Channeling a product through a single store denies the consumer the choice of where to buy, and is decisively anti consumer, but pro corporation.
A proper pro-consumer choice is to launch the game on all available platforms, and let the consumer decide where to buy it from. If Epic wants to sell the game for $50 compared to $60 on Steam, thats fine, that gives consumers choice of where to buy a game and which platform to support. If a user finds Epic's nebulous user agreements regarding privacy and security and Epic's lack of feedback system to be disagreeable, they are free to buy on steam which doesnt have those problems.
The game being available ONLY on Epic's store doesnt give the user any more choice, and decisively takes AWAY from the consumer, being limited to a platform with WORSE problems then what steam has.
You can argue you dont benefit one bit from steam, I argue that's BS. Do you download games, do you buy games off of Steam sales? Do you play games that only use the unobtrusive Steamworks as opposed to SecuRom or Always online DRM? Then you benefit from Steam, from having a platform with established rules and a wide install base.
Like, common, we are not in kindergarten.
Whether good or bad remains to be seen, but it is appearing as if it certainly offers quite a bit more than 2033 or LL. I certainly am thankful that after over 20 (+} years of gaming I can still just enjoy games, even not great ones, instead of picking everything apart. No, not really. It’s not something required for survival, like food. It’s a piece of entertainment, and nothing is preventing you from still buying it. There is not “forcing.”
FOR EVERY GAME
Not to mention the epic launcher is very poor compared to steam, there is a lot of lack of features, and also it grates me that even tho tere is a bigger share to the publisher, that games are actually no cheaper, so consumers dont even see a benefit anyway, the discount on this game is for USA consumers only and many europeans even have a higher price than it was on steam, so it seems epic are also deciding to treat Americans better than the rest of the world as well. Something else I wont support.
If you have to force people to use your launcher via exclusives then it means your launcher isnt enticing by itself.