Steam Fanatics Review-bomb "Metro Exodus" on Metacritic

[GoldenX]

No store can beat the good old Bay, that port has everything.

Oh, to add some salt:

 

[Deleted member 177333]

At the end of the day the review bombing is fake. The reviewers only further hurt the credibility of future reviews.

Epic is hell-bent on starting their own store and they are willing to pay other Publishers/ Developers to make their game a timed exclusive. If they get a lot of people to sign up for their store then we will see more of this in the future. I think they need to improve the store first and the customers will come. Steam started out with some exclusives too but it was only games developed by Valve. A while back Epic said that they want to make a store that would rival Steam. If they think they can do that just by paying for games and not improving the store they are wrong.

Was there something you wanted to discuss with me? (trying to figure out why you quoted me) I didn't comment on review bombing, were you looking for my opinion on that?

Edit - and just to add not trying to be rude, just want to make sure I'm not missing something and understand what you're asking

 

[Countryside]

I wouldn't call Steam users' angry reaction "inexplicable". It was a terrible move by the publisher. It's not 4A games'fault, but the move was very anti-consumer and just a bad decision by the publisher - the game should be available at a number of different digital distributors - they shouldn't be trying to force customers to buy it at a specific store.

Like i said before Bombarding negative reviews on older Metro games and the new one just because the new game will be released on a other platform is just unintelligent and childish.

These reviews have absolutely nothing to do with actual gameplay and will drove off new customers.

Now its upto the developer to choose with digital distribution platform they find to be best for them and lets say if most games were avaible on most digital distribution platforms now how will that work out.

 

[Deleted member 177333]

Like i said before Bombarding negative reviews on older Metro games and the new one just because the new game will be released on a other platform is just unintelligent and childish.

My post did not address review bombing, only the fact that steam users were angry about the move (because it was a bad move by the publisher) as they had every right to be, IMO - I'm not even into that series, and I thought it was a terrible move. I don't condone the review bombing of the older Metro games because it skews the results and makes the reviews unreliable.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

If there's review bombing then the developer should take note as to why and either correct the situation or ignore their clientele.

Both are valid choices and have consequences.

 

[64K]

Was there something you wanted to discuss with me? (trying to figure out why you quoted me) I didn't comment on review bombing, were you looking for my opinion on that?

Edit - and just to add not trying to be rude, just want to make sure I'm not missing something and understand what you're asking

You're not being rude but I did think you were implying that the review bombing was legit. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Pings]

Are you sure it is just "fanatics" and not pissed off people who are made at a stupid developer?

 

[XiGMAKiD]

With this kind of dedication to do this crap it's a case of serious Steam fanboism, do they have a crush on Gabe or something?

 

[Countryside]

My post did not address review bombing, only the fact that steam users were angry about the move (because it was a bad move by the publisher) as they had every right to be, IMO - I'm not even into that series, and I thought it was a terrible move. I don't condone the review bombing of the older Metro games because it skews the results and makes the reviews unreliable.

How can it be a bad move by the publisher. The game is available on a digital distribution platform if you dont like that platform it's not the publisher fault.

 

[newtekie1]

ya the double standard amazes me. more money for game developers while at the same time less cost to consumers... personally am glad to see the free markets finally working instead of just one company dominating and stacking that money.

That isn't a free market. If they wanted a free market, they'd release the game on every platform and let the consumers decide which one they prefer to use.

 

[Deleted member 177333]

How can it be a bad move by the publisher. The game is available on a digital distribution platform if you dont like that platform it's not the publisher fault.

Because it was the publisher's decision (to be clear, not the developer's), and it was a bad one. Limiting where people can buy the game is simply anti-consumer and not a good idea for this exact reason - it makes people mad. I don't even play that series and it made me kinda mad. Edit - just adding on here that IMO if they wanted to add the game to the Epic Games store on top of Steam, that's totally cool. It's simply an anti consumer move to pull it from Steam, which is clearly a favorite of many consumers - IMO just not good for business. It's a bad PR move, and simply makes a large portion of your potential customer base angry. Ill-advised.

People get used to their stores - just like people generally have a preferred grocery store. If you started taking items that people really liked out of Kroger and putting them only in Walmart, then people who hate Walmart probably will stop buying those items. It may or may not impact financial revenue, but I don't consider people being angry about it to be an unreasonable reaction.

You're not being rude but I did think you were implying that the review bombing was legit. Sorry for the confusion.

No worries, my apologies for the confusion as well. I didn't want to get into the review bombing bit in my post, just mainly addressing the article author's line about Steam users' reactions being "inexplicable" as I thought it was pretty obvious and well-reasoned why they were angry about the move.

 

[rv8000]

ya the double standard amazes me. more money for game developers while at the same time less cost to consumers... personally am glad to see the free markets finally working instead of just one company dominating and stacking that money.

What amazes me are thoughtless comments such as this one (and the others I guess).

In the best case scenario that they only lose 10% of total sales due to not selling on steam, the dev's are STILL making less money by going through Epic Games (it all depends on how fat of a paycheck they got to cut the exclusivity deal with EG). If you sit down and do the actual with math; with Metro Exodus selling for $50 US on the EG storefront and the now theoretical $60 price tag on Steam, even with the base 30% cut Steam takes they only make 2$ more per copy sold. Factor in the 10% minimal loss of total sales due to exclusivity (yay steam fanatics, or other people with brains), and other such things like Steam's shifting structure based on number of copies sold (of which Metro Exodus would totally exceed), there is not a chance in hell developers will make more through selling exclusively on the Epic Games store.

And then you also have to think about the fact the Epic Games store doesn't equalize prices throughout different regions of the world. In certain countries gamers will have to pay more for the game than the USD equivalent, and this just adds up to further lost sales when people dont feel like forking 70-80+ USD for a game.

Not a single part of this deal and release for Metro Exodus has anything to do with your "Free Market" concept, it is basically the complete opposite. This whole fiasco has done nothing but cause bad press for the Dev's of Metro, and imho none of this was a good deal for the devs or consumers. The only party that serves to benefit here is Epic Games, and that's exactly how they want it!

 

[rtwjunkie]

Are you sure it is just "fanatics" and not pissed off people who are made at a stupid developer?

How can it be a bad move by the publisher. The game is available on a digital distribution platform if you dont like that platform it's not the publisher fault.

To make it clear, this was their publisher decision, not 4A the developer. Publishers control almost everything. It’s a very one-sided relationship since the publisher has the money to support the game development. Think of them like a movie producer, but with more control over the final product.

 

[64K]

With this kind of dedication to do this crap it's a case of serious Steam fanboism, do they have a crush on Gabe or something?

Steam often gets a free pass. Steam wasn't very good in the beginning either. Another thing is that gamers say they dislike any DRM but Steam is the biggest user of DRM ever. Most of their games won't even launch unless I can go online. I've found a few that will allow you to play the game without any connection and a few that will allow me to play later after I've launched it one time during the day. I have a stable internet service though. Not all people do.

 

[Vayra86]

Would be if all stores can sell the game not just one so customer can choose.

That is not how the market works. Its a product that can be sold at specific resellers, just like millions of other products in all market segments around the world. Its not even a platform restriction but just a storefront we're talking about. The 'PC gamer' loses absolutely nothing by being limited to one store, except for some personal preference that is bordering on insanity - to tie yourself willingly to a Steam store for all your gaming. All these stores are still bound by the same laws and regulations and you have the very same consumer protection that applies. Even the fully optional 2 hour refund policy is the same between Steam and Epic.

If anything is anti-consumer here, its the consumer himself. There is a very simple choice for each one to be made: do you want to buy it via Epic or not. If you don't, your loss, let's see where it lands on the market. Thát is what free markets do and thát is how consumers can exercise power.

 

[silentbogo]

I'm sure review bombing won't stop until Metro Exodus either dead, or moves to Steam.
4A led down a lot of people by rolling with publisher's decision.

Metro has always been a pretty niche series. Not sure why it's being pushed as some game that's on par for something like Assassins Creed or Far Cry. It's more like a AA series historically. Metro 2033's only claim to fame was being well optimized and really demanding on hardware. Metro Last Light was an average game that was still fairly demanding. Neither were runaway successes, and in the case of 2033, it did good numbers before it spent the last several years as a perennial $5 game that was a good benchmark for new rigs.

If you look at Galyonkin's stats on Steamspy (basically a thing that empowered epic to create their store), both 2033 and LL sold over 2M copies each on Steam alone. More so on consoles.
Sounds like a successful title to me.

Ironically the target audience are the ones who suffered the most. With S.T.A.L.K.E.R. we had actual physical copies, so you did not have to tie yourself to Steam or any other platform. With Metro we had Steam, which in recent years became a de-facto gaming platform in Ukraine. All financial issues, like accepting local currency, double-conversion overcharge etc. have been eliminated several years ago. You can pretty much maintain a Steam account and buy games even without a credit card (just plain old cash and nearest payment terminal).
With Epic - I have no idea. I've created an Epic account back when the upcoming UT was in pre-alpha (and now it is abandonware), but I don't have a burning desire to share my personal and financial data with these guys.

How can it be a bad move by the publisher. The game is available on a digital distribution platform if you dont like that platform it's not the publisher fault.

It's exactly the publisher's fault. You don't pull the game off the platform right before release. That was a dick move.
If it was initially announced on Epic and wasn't offered on Steam in the first place - it would've been more logical.
Wanna know why there is so much outrage:
1) Thousands of people who pre-ordered on steam are now stuck with a base game and possibly no updates/bug fixes 'till next year. Not even talking about DLC
2) People who preordered collectors editions and physical copies expected to get Steam keys but will receive Epic keys instead
3) Potential buyers will have to commit to a new and unproven platform if they want to play it now.
4) Possible issues with financial part of things (see above)

On the serious side of things : the best way to make more money and make your game cheaper for the end-user is to drop publishers altogether.

 

[Dimi]

How anyone can defend these anti consumer practices is beyond me.

Steam, Origin & Uplay are the only ones i allow on my system. I don't even care if the others give away games for free.

Also, I wonder why 4A Games moved from Kiev to Malta.

Oh wait, Malta is Europe's corporate tax haven.

 

[Patriot]

Are you sure it is just "fanatics" and not pissed off people who are made at a stupid developer?

Yeah, the review bombing are just fanatics.... 236 reviews, 2-5m game owners, 66M steam subscribers.
You can be pissed at what deep silver has done for very very valid reasons and not review bomb.
Heck, you can be mad at what that dumb 4a dev said... calling people not true fans for being unwilling to use the Epic launcher.
Calling all of PC gamers pirates and a boycott would results in no more games. As others have stated... there is a reason THQ apologize for this.
Metro core sales have always been PC.

Dismissing the arguments of the rest of the metro owners because of the actions of 236 people is more retarded than the people writing the reveiws.
I was so happy with 4a for the GOG and linux releases... I seriously doubt they have no say in the actions of deep silver.
I am amused that they know their audience so poorly that they thought there would be no retribution for these actions.

 

[moproblems99]

I am amused that they know their audience so poorly that they thought there would be no retribution for these actions.

You are quite right. They probably assumed their fan base was mature enough to deal with adversity (if you want to stretch it that far) in a healthy manner. They also probably thought their fans loved their game instead of Steam. The probably also thought their fans would understand this is the publisher's decision.

Wanna know why there is so much outrage:
1) Thousands of people who pre-ordered on steam are now stuck with a base game and possibly no updates/bug fixes 'till next year. Not even talking about DLC
2) People who preordered collectors editions and physical copies expected to get Steam keys but will receive Epic keys instead
3) Potential buyers will have to commit to a new and unproven platform if they want to play it now.
4) Possible issues with financial part of things (see above)

It was already reported that patches and everything else would work just fine. Read people.

 

[64K]

For me, I will wait and get Exodus next year on Steam. I don't mind having yet another store. Hell, I have Steam, GOG, Origin, Rockstar,Uplay and now the Microsoft store. Epic needs to prove themselves before I buy any games there. I've just resigned myself to the obvious truth that all the big Publishers want their own store. Probably Bethesda will be next in making the next Elder Scrolls game a timed exclusive to their store.

 

[GoldenX]

So, apart from consoles and browsers, now we have DRM fanboys. Sheesh.

 

[Shambles1980]

That is completely different. Epic isn't preventing the game from running because it is a virus. You just have to wait for Steam.

oh sorry i should have said:

"
Im sure you would be ecstatic if ms said.
You can only sell your games in windows store now. if its for sale any where else then it will be detected as a virus and nuked as standard in windows, Also we only charge 15% on a game sale so you will be better off any way. and don't worry its only for a specified length of time"

So now everything should be fine by your reasoning.


And just to make sure some people understand.
The biggest issue is Epic PAID to PULL the game from other stores. The publishers didnt move because of the better % or to reach more people. They did it because they were paid to do it, I know you would all be pissed if microsoft had done the same thing years ago with gfwl or now with the windows store.
I dont care about epic offering competition to steam. I approve of it,
But if your idea of making the store a Better deal is to give publishers benefits whilst offering no benefits to the consumers, "and no paying some one to be exclusive on your platform only is NOT a benefit to a consumer" then you must have been eating paint flakes as a baby or some thing.

Im Less likely than ever to use the epic store because they chose to do this.
I hope the devs manage to get away from the publishers because this kind of stuff is just wrong. and for the devs and the franchise to get a bad name because of a publishers choice is just not good.
and you can say "yes those silly steam kids shouldnt have done such a naughty thing" but the "naughty thing" reflects their distaste about what the publishers did.

undoubtedly some here would prefer the people just shut up and not voice any complaints. but thats not how consumerism works.
I dont agree with a review bombing, but if thats the only way they think they will be heard then thats what they will do.
Still better than having a mini riot outside some devs studio or something.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I could see the idea of having an exclusive release of a game tied to a specific digital distributor, but only for an exclusive 1 day early buy from a distributor at discount so you can pay a little less and get to play the game 1 day earlier.

This way the publisher doesn't alienate any customer, people can still buy the game on any platform they wish. If the customer wants to be a bit more frugal to save some money and play the game a day earlier they could buy the game on Epic. Otherwise, you wait a full 24 hours later until the game is released on Steam/GoG/GMG/HumbleBundle/etc...

Sure, you'd have people that would still bitch, but it's business. Businesses are in it to make money, always looking for a one-up over other competition.

 

[Upgrayedd]

I feel like the statement from Deep Silver about having no intentions to leave PC behind got left behind..almost on purpose..to stir the pot a bit more..

 

[moproblems99]

oh sorry i should have said:

"
Im sure you would be ecstatic if ms said.
You can only sell your games in windows store now. if its for sale any where else then it will be detected as a virus and nuked as standard in windows, Also we only charge 15% on a game sale so you will be better off any way. and don't worry its only for a specified length of time"

So now everything should be fine by your reasoning.

Not really. You are comparing MS treating games as virus and removing them if you didn't buy from them to having a game removed from a store. If you can't see the difference...then I don't know what to tell you.

This post is a prime example of the issue at hand. Something about that empty take of knee-jerk emotions.