The struggle between Steam and Epic Games sees another highly anticipated game caught up in the middle. Metro Exodus is ditching Steam for the Epic Games store. And it’s all about the slice of revenue Epic Games is taking versus Steam.
Here’s a refresh in case you haven’t been following along: Epic takes 12% of the sale price compared to the usual 30% Steam takes.
Before we dive into why many in the gaming community are pushing back today, let’s see what Deep Silver (Metro Exodus’ publisher) has to say about the change.
“We are delighted to partner with Epic to bring the digital PC version of Metro Exodus to market,” said 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.”
Notice where the Deep Silver’s CEO said “pass on savings to the players?” Metro Exodus will be $10 cheaper in North America. But those “savings” don’t extend around the world. The game will still cost €59.99 in most other European countries. A FAQ on Metro Exodus’ website mentions “further regional pricing may vary.”
So what if you already bought it on Steam? Here’s the gist of how that works moving forward:
– All pre-orders through Steam will be honored. This also includes Expansion Pack content via the Gold Edition. All content will be available to download via Steam when the game releases.
– All free and paid content will be released simultaneously across Steam and Epic. Everything from title updates and patches to premium DLC. If you’re on Steam, you’ll get all of this at the exact same time as the Epic Games Store.
As expected, many across the gaming community aren’t thrilled with the news. A quick look at Reddit and forums shows a lot of pushback. Why? Most of it circles back around to the fact that Epic Games Store doesn’t have the features Steam has. Things like regional pricing, forums, FPS counter, and more.
For me, the idea of a new storefront giving Steam some competition is a good thing. But Epic needs to ramp up the features on their store, and fast. Plus, I’m not a fan of these exclusivity deals. According to Deep Silver, Metro Exodus won’t be returning to Steam until 2020. In a perfect world, Epic would compete with Steam based off what it offers gamers, not developers.
For now, the promise of a higher revenue percentage is enticing for publishers. It’ll be interesting to see how sales of Metro Exodus fare on Epic’s store compared to Steam.
