Metro Exodus Developer Discusses Boycott of the PC Platform for Sequels over Steam Review Bombing

[Tsukiyomi91]

well, anyone on the Internet can claim themselves as "game developers" or "game publishers" are usually not really trustworthy... also, I do not condone review bombing just because Deep Silver/THQ Nordic says they are moving to Epic Games storefront for the slightly higher profit margin over Steam. Let them think it's a good marketing move when the majority of Epic Games userbase are kids who plays Fortnite.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

What better way to boost interest in Epic games launcher. "Metro, only on Epic".

Its an advertising gimmick gone sour.

Because a few fanbois refuse to change underwear or move out of mom's basement while refusing to install another launcher, its lame excuse for a die hard gamer.

As a Gamer, I think at this point at this stage of game distribution, its a dumb move for the game devs but yet a smart move for the Epic launcher. I remember games that are only this console or that one, all it does is hurt the developers and benefit the console its playable on.

In the end is about profitability.

these negative review posts could be seen as gamers hurting themselves, that action could prevent further development of this and other games currently in the works.

 

[dj-electric]

I wouldn't mind Metro being only on console. This way they will not make enough money and have to quit. Perfect.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

The Deep Silver developers are essentially giving the middle finger to their fans by removing a choice on which client their fans prefer. If they had any respect for their fans, they could have made their case and asked:

"Fans of the Metro series, as you may know, Valve takes a larger cut of our profit, we strive to make the best games possible, we understand that there are fans that for varies reasons might not be able to support us on another platform but we would truly appreciate your support by using and buying our game on the Epic Games store, this is so that we will be able to continue making great games for you now and in the future."

Instead Deep Silver, you removed the choice completely, making it exclusive to one store instead of selling it on multiple stores, like GoG and Steam. As soon as you make something exclusive to one platform there is no competition and your remove a choice from the fans. Now you cry "foul" for the push-back, how damn childish. Deep Silver; your logic is flawed, if you make it exclusive to consoles only, YOU ARE STILL BEING EXCLUSIVE and you will lose a whole market, thus you lose more PROFIT, isn't that what you are complaining about like a little tantrum throwing child not getting his ice-cream?

I tell you what Deep Silver; if you buy me a new PC with at least 32GB-64GB of RAM, with a nice 12-16 Core Processor and a nice big monitor and resolution to fit more crap in, oh dear, new monitor, bigger resolution, need a new graphics card now too to keep the framerate above 100, a nice RTX2080 will do too, only then would I be happy to load as many game clients on my machine as you want. Deal? No? Then kindly hold your tongue.

Deep Silver, you weren't thinking of your fans when you made this decision, this is what you don't seem to get.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Deep Silver are mere publishers. They have the final say along with THQ Nordic to make last minute changes while 4A Games can't say anything coz they're being held with their hands tied to their backs. The whole "Epic gives higher profit revenue" makes me sick coz they're impressing stupid investors over the fanbase who go out of their way spending fortunes on collectibles & pre-order exclusive contents. They (Deep Silver/THQ) shouldn't have made this move. that small deviation of getting extra profit per game sales is plain idiotic. Like the publisher's name, those guys are digging deeper graves when no one is giving them money or to Epic/Tencent.

 

[INSTG8R]

Talk about bite the hand that feeds you! I purchased AlLL of them I didn’t get the deals on the remasters either so yeah I’ve supported them. First this Epic nonsense and now some Dev has the gaul to call us pirates and insignificant. .. yeah was gonna be a tough sale to begin with now it’s money I’ll be very reluctant to part with.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

while I don't recommend supporting piracy but it teaches us a few things; 1. if the game is really bad & has always-online feature, the game won't even be pirated. 2. not everyone is rich or even gives a damn when the game gets old. Let's say "copied" games are like demos so that players can weigh their opinions with their wallet. 3. pirates actually spend their own money in purchasing the base games + DLCs so one doesn't need to waste theirs & say the game is crap. Lastly, if there is a bad enough game that gets pirated, even with DLCs, the amount of seeders will tell you everything. Metro Exodus is going to be the most heavily pirated game in a few weeks time as a big "f*** you" to Deep Silver.

 

[NC37]

lol, all this is going to do is make them do it more. Frankly, don't care. The Metro devs burned the bridges to my wallet the moment they wanted me to pay money for a new version of what I already own and barely changed anything about it. Paid patch update...they can rot.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

again, this action is not 4A Games' decision. It was Deep Silver/THQ who was behind all this "changes". So blame it on those publishers with a board filled with lobbyists & rotten-minded investors who give zero damn about customer base & fanbase. All that for "higher profit revenue per sale" BS that Epic/Tencent has been doing.

 

[arduum]

"I was watching the excitement. Impression is dual..."
https://www.gameru.net/forum/index....258cb&showtopic=71769&view=findpost&p=1648737

 

[INSTG8R]

again, this action is not 4A Games' decision. It was Deep Silver/THQ who was behind all this "changes". So blame it on those publishers with a board filled with lobbyists & rotten-minded investors who give zero damn about customer base & fanbase. All that for "higher profit revenue per sale" BS that Epic/Tencent has been doing.

Yet we all know where 90% of that Epic revenue is coming from and Metro moving to “an empty storefront” certainly isn’t going to help their sales targets. It wouldn’t surprise me if the current Steam sales revenue will beat out Epics .

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Yep. Sure, Steam only gives 70-odd percent revenue per sale, but that alone will be outweighed by the fanbase who owns 2 previous Metro games in their library. If I were the publisher, I don't mind putting it on Steam storefront. Impressing your customer base is a safer bet & not rely heavily on those stupid but super rich investors who has no interest in making long-term profit but only wants short-term profit before running away with the money if they hear that your profit target is nowhere near their "estimated target"... That'll be an even bigger blow to the company's outlook IMO.

 

[INSTG8R]

Yep. Sure, Steam only gives 70-odd percent revenue per sale, but that alone will be outweighed by the fanbase who owns 2 previous Metro games in their library. If I were the publisher, I don't mind putting it on Steam storefront. Impressing your customer base is a safer bet & not rely heavily on those stupid but super rich investors who has no interest in making long-term profit but only wants short-term profit before running away with the money if they hear that your profit target is nowhere as their expectations.

Exactly I mean if you’re not playing Fortnite chances are you don’t even know about the Epic Launcher. I only have it because some nice Russian chap tried to make an account spoofing my email so I took it back and have grabbed the free games they’ve offered but not actually played or installed in fact...The big warning bells for me was. The other day when I actually checked to see if it even had a friends list. Well yeah it wanted to mine my Steam and Facebook for friends....GTFOH!!

 

[Patriot]

Epic also features account breaches and selling your information through tencent...

Also, reading 15 pages on that forum with handy translate english... Very much a verified account and 4a Dev.
That said, he is a dev, not a representative... he is expressing his feelings being hurt as people attack his work over publisher actions.
He is also being stupid and not understanding the situation in entirety.... people boycotting epic is not the same as people hating your game... sucks that devs are caught in the crossfire, but 4a should have some sway with the publisher, if not, write better contracts.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

I have an Epic account, but there's nothing much for them to mine anyways... on top of uninstalling their crappy client out of my PC coz I'm not really a fan of installing more than 3 clients.

 

[kastriot]

If Gabe fatso ale lowers fees @12% like epic does maybe those problems wouldn't happen but again greed, greed never changes..

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

I doubt Lord Gaben would increase the revenue per sale or reduce the royalty fees when he knows that the userbase of Steam is in the billions & still gets other forms of profit from marketplace tradings, paying early access entry pass etc. Another thing that he won't do is smooching up with investors that has unrealistic profit margins & short deadlines. If Steam were to do that on top of still being a paid service, it wouldn't even last long.

 

[Vayra86]

Well, crappy move there 4A, if you decided to make trilogy so please make sure to publish your shit on release date on those platforms where you initially published it. It's dirty to publish 2/3 on one platform and than BOOM and last one (temporary exclusive) 1/3 on another.

*AHEM* Destiny?

Didn't hear much like this about that... The arguments being made since the announcement, about EPIC store are 50% FUD and the other half is overinflated nonsense. Like yours. There is zero reflection on what countless other franchises have done over the years. There is lots of content that doesn't appear on Steam.

People are way too emotional over this and I am getting the impression this whole news article is one big troll attempt - a successful one at that. All you adults have your panties in a bunch over a game release on a different storefront than you're used to, and now some other noname on the web with a 4A logo next to his name is mad because everyone else is mad.

Get a life. Please. And that goes for everyone involved, including the people here.

If you're not buying it, then don't. Sales will determine what people really think, not some noise on the web. Thank you for participating. I know I will, this is still one of the most highly anticipated titles of 2019, the store selling it won't change that and being self-imposed 'locked' to a Steam platform is retarded - about as retarded as a console exclusive See what I did there?

Do it, You think you are boycotting us.... we are boycotting you. This game will probably be cracked in record time.

'Us'? If you think this is a community effort in any way, you're completely mistaken. Some fiery Reddit posts don't have that effect. There is no community here. Steam is no community. Its a storefront, and we're talking about a vocal minority here. The vast majority will just suck it up, or buy later, or wait for a sale. Again: its just a store. The reasons to care about this really aren't there. Games survive just fine without being on Steam (look at Uplay, Origin, Bnet, etc etc etc).

As for being cracked, that hasn't got anything to do with the choice of Store, and is the biggest hypocrisy of a countermeasure you can imagine.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

wish everyone is being moderate... But when you see a successful game that has left its mark on a popular storefront suddenly moved to another storefront at the last minute & not giving a detailed apology but a bland, scripted PR crap, of course everyone goes mad. I don't blame those who got mad coz they deserved to be one. Imagine this; if your favourite restaurant that has opened for decades suddenly have a change in ownership coz the previous owner wants to "move on" & suddenly that reputable name has gone to the way of a dodo. Would you be mad or not?

 

[Vayra86]

wish everyone is being moderate... But when you see a successful game that has left its mark on a popular storefront suddenly moved to another storefront at the last minute & not giving a detailed apology but a bland, scripted PR crap, of course everyone goes mad. I don't blame those who got mad coz they deserved to be one. Imagine this; if your favourite restaurant that has opened for decades suddenly have a change in ownership coz the previous owner wants to "move on" & suddenly that reputable name has gone to the way of a dodo. Would you be mad or not?

Yes, and I would once again have a choice of going elsewhere or seeing what the new owner made of it. That is the power you have as a consumer. That is what I'm saying, as well. If you're not buying, then don't! It is those sales numbers that will send the real message. I am actually convinced the majority will just suck it up anyway and there is little reason not to. You're not really being harmed.

Flinging nonsense around the web of which the better half isn't even true, is not such a message. That is just throwing a tantrum like a 10 year old. Case in point, this topic, with adults tossing about -1's like nobody's business. My oh my. It'd be funny if it wasn't so very sad.

People, the platform here... is the PC. Not Steam. It never really changed. Steam and/or Epic is just another layer that you need to click through.

What better way to boost interest in Epic games launcher. "Metro, only on Epic".

Its an advertising gimmick gone sour.

Because a few fanbois refuse to change underwear or move out of mom's basement while refusing to install another launcher, its lame excuse for a die hard gamer.

As a Gamer, I think at this point at this stage of game distribution, its a dumb move for the game devs but yet a smart move for the Epic launcher. I remember games that are only this console or that one, all it does is hurt the developers and benefit the console its playable on.

In the end is about profitability.

these negative review posts could be seen as gamers hurting themselves, that action could prevent further development of this and other games currently in the works.

Hey, somebody gets it, at least.

 

[ArbitraryAffection]

 

[INSTG8R]

Yes, and I would once again have a choice of going elsewhere or seeing what the new owner made of it. That is the power you have as a consumer. That is what I'm saying, as well. If you're not buying, then don't! It is those sales numbers that will send the real message. I am actually convinced the majority will just suck it up anyway and there is little reason not to. You're not really being harmed.

Flinging nonsense around the web of which the better half isn't even true, is not such a message. That is just throwing a tantrum like a 10 year old. Case in point, this topic, with adults tossing about -1's like nobody's business. My oh my. It'd be funny if it wasn't so very sad.

People, the platform here... is the PC. Not Steam. It never really changed. Steam and/or Epic is just another layer that you need to click through.



Hey, somebody gets it, at least.

Because supporting this kind of behaviour is good? 4A have already shot themselves in the foot just by switching to a sub par platform that’s genuine sole usage is to launch Fortnite. It really doesn’t offer much more than that. Steam has a user base in the Billions, Epic can’t and never will compete with that no matter how many games they try to poach from Steam and yes that’s exactly what they did was poaching.
You casually pass it off as “another layer” but it’s more than that and Steam is more than that. Only Bethesda can be compared to Epic for as you put it “another layer”

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Although I agree that multiple storefronts is ok but it is never ok for a game publisher to "find greener pastures" at the last minute when one already established a fanbase in the millions & been using a well-established storefront. Hence the anger of those millions of fans "bombing" the older Metro titles on Steam for their displeasure aiming exclusively at Deep Silver, with partial hate to 4A Games for not intervening this shitstorm.

 

[Vayra86]

Because supporting this kind of behaviour is good? 4A have already shot themselves in the foot just by switching to a sub par platform that’s genuine sole usage is to launch Fortnite. It really doesn’t offer much more than that. Steam has a user base in the Billions, Epic can’t and never will compete with that no matter how many games they try to poach from Steam and yes that’s exactly what they did was poaching.
You casually pass it off as “another layer” but it’s more than that and Steam is more than that. Only Bethesda can be compared to Epic for as you put it “another layer”

It is not more than that. Its a store. You're not buying a piece of the Epic Store, you're buying a game and the Store is the medium that feeds you it. Steam is just the same, except with a ton of junk built around it, of which the better half is filled with pretty useless clutter. That list @Patriot posted up there... it contains every Steam feature so that it can put lots of red boxes next to the other stores... but it lacks a crucial security item like 2FA. That alone speaks volumes. This is 10 year old temper tantrum level of argument. It is a lazy customer argument, it is a short-sighted customer argument. Nobody cares about 75% of the features on that list.

How come we never saw this kind of noise about Origin, or Battlenet, or Uplay? The biggest shitstorm we saw was 'I need to DRM twice' when going through Steam and Uplay. No game boycotting, no lists like the one above... yet Origin and Uplay have been considerably worse for quite a long time. Oh, and last I checked, those stores are doing just fine.

I'm sorry mate, but the level of this discussion is an all-new low for PC gamers worldwide. This is the reality: people are too lazy to install another launcher, and the 4A dev quote hits the nail on the head - if people can't be bothered to take that effort, they're not really waiting for a Metro game. He gets it, and he lays out the consequence of a boycot for the PC platform. Again: he gets it. If the game doesn't run a profit on the PC, it won't go there again. That argument has nothing to do with Epic or Steam. Its about the game. Not the store.

 

[silentbogo]

A user by the handle scynet on the Russian Gameinator forums claimed to be one of the developers on the Metro game franchise, and expressed disappointment, and even anger at the review bombing ongoing.

Well, that ain't gonna instigate more review bombings not a single bit....
Seems like the most popular counter-argument "It's only another launcher, you need 2 minutes to install it" doesn't quite work. Maybe after this fiasco their publisher will understand that it's a lot more than installing a small piece of software but also: sharing your personal info with yet another company, trusting your financial data to an unproven storefront.
Another thing that this "scynet" dude cannot fit into his big head is that the biggest ranters in this mess are people like me: the ones who owns both 2033 and LL on Steam.
To put it plainly he just shat on the actual loyal fanbase to the point where people got offended are started to cancel their Steam pre-orders.

To jump on a new platform offered backed by a powerhouse in the industry is only logical.

More like inferior platform which before tencent's involvement was supposed to be only an additional revenue stream from UE-based games, if my memory serves me right.
A better "logical" example: CDPR still publishes games on Steam, even though their own GOG has gotten lots of traction and they could've gotten away with making Witcher 3 an exclusive. Even with their ideological fight against DRM they still think and care about the end-user and they still think about keeping the company's profits flowing.
In case of 4A - that's not the case. They thought Metro franchise was so good and had such a loyal fanbase that regardless of their actions fans would still buy the game. I'm sure that 99.9% of preorders (incl. 3rd party sites w/ so-called "physical copies") expected to get Steam keys. Now only direct Steam pre-orders are getting a game on steam, while everyone else is getting EA keys.

If you're not buying, then don't! It is those sales numbers that will send the real message. I am actually convinced the majority will just suck it up anyway and there is little reason not to. You're not really being harmed.

I doubt you are getting it: this whole situation is about the power of the consumer. If we can't wrestle 4A into selling on steam, then it only shows that their priorities are not with their customers.
Even THQ are trying to distance themselves from Koch and 4A controversy, but 4A apparently will defend their publisher to their last breath.