Recently, it was revealed that Metro Exodus publisher Deep Silver had signed a deal with Fortnite developer Epic Games to bring the latest entry in the first-person shooter franchise exclusively to the Epic Store for one year. The Epic Store, for those not in the know, is a PC competitor to Steam, one that has lead to a great deal of controversy.
From the perspective of the publisher, however, the 88/12 revenue split is a hard offer to turn down. In fact, for this reason, Metro Exodus is $10 cheaper on the Epic Store. This means that the publisher makes more and consumers pay less, and for those who have already pre-ordered through Steam, those sales will still be honored. Of course, while there are tons of benefits in this exclusivity deal for some, many remain unhappy with it.
Chief among them is Valve, the owner behind Steam, that called this decision "unfair," though this also managed to catch a lot of flak as well. This outrage then carried over to the Steam pages for both Metro Exodus predecessors, Metro 2033 Redux and Metro Last Light.
In a high volume of reviews coming in since January 29, Steam users are review-bombing the games in protest of this Epic Store exclusivity deal. Thus far, these have ranged from calling Deep Silver greedy and stating that Epic has terrible customer service to declaring this decision a backstab and much, much more.
Respectfully, while the reviews were negative, many still called the first two entries great games, but many also threatened to just not play Metro Exodus or pirate the game instead. Overall, the reviews remain "very positive," but Metro 2033 Redux has received 155 "very negative" reviews and Metro Last Light has received 132 "very negative" reviews in the past 24 hours.
Whether or not this protest forces Deep Silver to reconsider this exclusivity deal or prompts Steam to offer better, more competitive services remains to be seen, but it is clear that this deal will remain controversial. Considering Metro Exodus was one of the most anticipated horror games of 2019, it seems safe to say several PC players are disappointed.
Metro Exodus launches on February 15, 2019, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.