Fury as Metro Exodus gets pulled from Steam and UK players miss out on price cut
METRO EXODUS is the latest game to skip Steam and jump on the Fortnite bandwagon.
The PC version of the post-apocalyptic survival shooter which is due out on February 15 will only be available for download through the Epic Games store, and not through Valve's Steam.
Announcing the move, Metro's publisher Deep Silver promised that all pre-orders through Steam would still be honoured, including all bonuses and extra content that will be released after launch.
Epic Games launched its store at the end of 2018 with the promise of free games, deciding to divert some of the cash they're raking in from Fortnite from fiscal millinery to other developers.
Most PC gamers have bought almost all of their new games from Valve's Steam for years now, despite growing complaints about the platform.
Epic takes a 60 per cent smaller cut of sales than Valve does for most games sold through Steam, with added incentives for those who use the Unreal Engine that's behind Fortnite and other Epic games.
WHAT IS THE METRO SERIES?
DMITRY GLUKHOVSKY'S first Metro novel, Metro 2033, was published in 2005.
It was set in the tunnels of Moscow's underground system after a nuclear war has laid waste to the surface.
The inhabitants of the Metro are led to believe they can't leave because the outside world is too devastated for humans to survive in, with the political leaders of this underground world using misinformation and fear to keep the population inside under control.
Metro 2034 and Metro 2035 completed the original trilogy of novels.
Metro 2033's story was turned into a first-person survival shooter of the same name in 2010, which was followed up by Metro: Last Light in 2013.
Both the novels and games have sold well in both Russia and the West.
the first book of which was published in 2005 was "speculation about how humanity never learns from its mistakes", presenting a microcosm of the old world order, Glukhovsky said.
The next chapter, Metro Exodus, sees the protagonist of the original trilogy leave the Metro with a small group of family and friends to try and find a new home.
We've played a few different bits of it, and it maintains the tense, claustrophobic survival feel of the original.
Many levels are more open, but the story is still linear, and every shot very much still counts with resources still being very limited.
The game's rendering of different parts of Russia through the seasons (as well as through the night) is also gorgeous, new weapons feel punchy, and the crafting system seems robust.
We can't wait to play more of it when it comes out on February 15.
Deep Silver's CEO says that this "will allow publishers to invest more into content creation, or pass on savings to the players".
And they are passing that saving on to some players -- just not those in the UK.
The standard edition of the game was listed at $59.99 on Steam, but is now listed at $49.99 on the Epic Store. Unfortunately, the UK picing remains unchanged at £49.99.
Valve, meanwhile, attacked the decision, saying it was "unfair to Steam customers".
Metro Exodus is the first of a quickfire triple of great-looking shooters coming in the coming weeks, all of which are skipping Steam for PC. Bioware's Anthem will be available for some on the same day via EA's Origin service, while Ubisoft's The Division 2 will hit in March via Epic's store and Ubisoft's own storefront.
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