Epic Games Store steals another high profile title from Steam

Since the launch of Epic Games’ own digital storefront, the publishers best known for the smash hit Fortnite have been securing exclusive launch deals with some major gaming titles.

Ubisoft announced that its upcoming title, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 would be exclusively releasing on the Epic Games Store, and now we’ve learned that this storefront will be the only place you can secure Metro Exodus on PC for the first year it’s available.

After this year – i.e. on February 14, 2020 – Metro Exodus will be arriving on the Steam storefront, although customers who have already pre-ordered the title on this platform will have their orders honored.

According to Steam, the option to pre-order Metro Exodus will be removed “later today” (as of January 28), and “Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam”.

Mo money mo problems

While there has always been a few different avenues for PC gamers to purchase digital copies of games online, Steam has long dominated the space. With the explosive popularity of Fortnite, however, Epic Games has entered the storefront arena with a formidable contender.

As a point of difference, Epic Games is offering a more generous revenue split to games sold on its platform, something Deep Silver (Metro Exodus’ publisher) has specifically praised.

While Steam currently offers a 70/30 split, with the storefront raking in 30% of all the game’s profits, Epic’s platform present a much more generous 88/12 revenue ratio.

The notice found on Steam’s Metro Exodus game page reads: “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.”