Metro Creator Thinks the Metro Exodus Epic Move Will Kill the Series

From GameWatcher: "While the PC gaming world is still reeling from the news that Metro Exodus, the long-awaited and already extremely fun to play third game in the Metro series, is leaving Steam for Epic Games Store exclusivity. Now Metro creator Dmitri Glukhovsky has weighed in on the deal, and he doesn't sound happy."

[monkey602]

Is this being blown out of proportion or what?
Steam preorders are still being honoured and isn't it only a timed store exclusive ?

[opc]

I would think most of the sales would come on Xbox and PS4.

it's worth noting that CDPR took a shot releasing Thronebreaker DRM-free only on GOG. A month later they said their sales were so low that they had to start selling on Steam.

[WombBat]

I understand people dont want to abandon steam, but from a developers perspective, you stand to make substantially more releasing on Epic Store.

The price of games has been steady for over 3 console generations, while the cost of creating games has been increasing exponentially, and not to mention inflation affecting the dollar's worth.

I applaud the move from the Metro team for, if nothing else, pushing competition and making developing games plausible for an indie dev like me.

[starchild]

Why would you think most of the sales would come from Xbox and PS4? Have you not paid attention to any of the game revenue reports that have been released? PC games generate more revenue than games on any single console.

That's just speaking in general of course. Metro had it's origins on PC and has always been a more PC centric series. It's interesting that you mention CDPR, because they are another PC centric developer and The Witcher 3 sold more copies on PC than any console.

[kevnb]

@WombBat you wont make more on the epic store guaranteed, they might not take as big a cut but they have nowhere near the same customer base. This is just a greedy publisher trying to take easy guaranteed money from epic, in the long run they will fail. If they really wanted to support competition it wouldn't be exclusive to any store.

[WombBat]

@kevnb Yes the base is bigger on Steam, but Epic has a decent sized base too. All the Fortnite, Paragon, Unreal Tournament players, and Unreal developers have access to the Epic Store.

All those players who really want the game will buy the game, and maybe some on the fence wont, but I'd wager to say it ends up selling a similar but smaller number to that of the previous title On Epic Store, but they will make a lot more money out of it.

Furthermore, it's not a bad thing that they try to maximize profits. The video game industry is very unforgiving and only a select few make a profit from developing games. The revenue they get with this stands to help other developers directly and indirectly: directly, as they will help theyre in-studio ventures with capital to create and expand their games, and indirectly by allowing the base for Epic Store to grow so that indie developers like me can make a lot more money so that we can quit our jobs and follow our dreams.

If you can't at least acknowledge that, then i've got nothing else to say to you.

[kevnb]

@WombBat that doesnt even come close to the customer base of steam, and no they arent maximizing profits. Its just short term money for the publisher, long term they are losing money. 47 million active user daily on steam, many of them will just think the game didnt come to pc yet. Not to mention just being on steam is advertisement. The only case where it makes sense to be exclusive to a store is if you own the store and actually market it.

[WombBat]

@kevnb

We won't know that until the game releases and the sales figures are lower than the previous game. It can still be 17% fewer sales and still make more profit than if it released on Steam.

[crazyCoconuts]

@Wombbat, what games do you have out there out of curiosity. Maybe some of us play your games...

[Vits]

@WombBat

It's a little more complex than that, because Steam revenue take goes down the more a game sell, so that's how it would end up:

So for a $10 Million revenue, they would need to move 228k units on Epic. For the same revenue on Steam, they would need to move 239k units. Therefore they can't lose more than 4% of the total sales or they will not be able to make the same amount of money.

And that got worse the more the game sells, because Steam's share goes down the more it makes. To the point that for a $60M revenue they would need to move 1.37 M units on Epic, but only 1.32 M units on Steam. So they would need a extra 4% in sales to reach it.

That said, it only happens because they chose to sell the game for $50 on Epic while it was for $60 on Steam. If they sold for the same price, they could sustain bigger loss on sales, something close to 20% for the first 10 M and 16% after 50 M, and they would still make same profits.

[KyRo]

Wombat I can tell you games in the UK are forever creeping up in price. Finding a new release at £40 like last gen in a retail store is becoming rare and more between £50 to £55.

[kevnb]

@redey3 im talking active daily users, also your strawman doesnt mean anything since you are talking monthly users of the game on all platforms. The game is on android, ios, pc, xbox, switch and ps4... So at best there are what maybe 15-25 million monthly users just on pc ... hardly compares to 47 million daily users on steam. Steam has 90 million active users per month by the way, but straw man all you want.

[opc]

@starchild

I think most sales will come on the consoles because it's releasing on consoles in two weeks, and it won't be releasing on the largest PC client for a year.

[kevnb]

@opc ya probably, although the series usually does quite well on pc on the various stores. Being exclusive to one store that hasnt even really found a massive/diverse audience seems like suicide.

[Xx_Pistol_xX]

@starchild Try again bro For instance in 2017 PS4 made more for Ubisoft than Xbox and PC combined. https://www.tweaktown.com/n...

[fiveby9]

This is EPIC throwing around Fornite money to buy exclusivity for a game they didn't even have a hand in making. Sure competition for Steam is a good thing but not like this. Why not just have the game on both stores? The EPIC store lack of features, especially user reviews is concerning. At this point, I just won't buy Metro Exodus. It's a shame. This is not the dev's doing but their publisher. Don't people like a free and open marketplace? Real competition is a good thing. I would no more be in favor of having exclusive games on Steam that were not of their making.

[sprinterboy]

Imo yes, but let's not forget, console and pc owners already know if there getting the game. (just like they did with previous metro games)
This game is under appreciated and the pc steam pre orders are getting honored anyway which will literally be 90% of the pc crowd who have bought the previous games anyway.
The gamers moaning on pc probably have not even played the first 2 or even interested in it anyhow.
The previous games went for £4.29 over the holidays, yet gamers still didn't pick up this gem of a game yet millions are now moaning about the game they had no intention of buying anyway just to go with the cool crowd.

[nucky64]

good points.

[Redemption-64]

Word up, I couldn't agree more.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

I disagree. I'm a fan of the series, but I don't pre-order any games, because I've learned my lesson over the years to wait and see what the final product is going to be, before spending $80.00 (Canada)on a game. It's silly to say that people are moaning, because the game has migrated over to a service that many people do not want to use, for various reasons. Would you be moaning about a game releasing on Xbox One and not on PS4, kind of like Rise of the Tomb Raider?

[Sophisticated_Chap]

Thanks for the PM sprinterboy, too funny!

[Seafort]

I had the steam version of Metro Exodus preordered on cdkeys for £34.99. My preorder changed from a steam key to an Epic store key overnight so I cancelled my preorder and got Sekiro instead.

No developer or publisher controls where I buy or play my games. Koch Media made a grave mistake creating a kind of war with PC gamers over this idiotic move.

I will never support and buy games from Epic Store until Epic change their ways and stop treating the PC platform like a console. They should have stayed with Microsoft if they wanted to try to change the PC to a console.

Most PC gamers will rebel against anything that treats us like 2nd class customers. Epic supports developers and publishers over PC gamers and customers. It will be their downfall before they've even started.

[Cobra951]

@Sophisticated_Chap: Poor analogy. PCs can run Steam and Epic releases equally well. A PS4 can't run an Xbox exclusive at all.

[Weeblordbad]

This feels very par for the course when it comes to discourse surrounding video games. To many teens, to much free time and a lack of perspective for "what should I actually be mad about?" So instead we have Metro Exodus leaving Steam and kids treating it like the sky is falling.

[coretone]

First world problems. But hey join us, join the angry mob head group. It is so lovely just hate everything.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

I agree completely, as it reminds me of when Rise of the Tomb Raider was exclusive on Xbox One. If people on PlayStation wanted to play the game that bad, they should have just bought an Xbox One. People just need to stop complaining....

[RememberThe357]

They're saying they won't buy the game, not that they're turning to a new political ideology or preparing for revolution. Seems you might be taking these opinions more seriously than they're intended to be.

[Notellin]

I was on the fence about buying the game but am now purchasing release day now that they are bypassing Steam's 30% fee.

I love some good competition and Steam's customer service has been garbage for years. Time for some other companies to put pressure on them to improve

[Cobra951]

There you go. I guess most people say they're for competition, until it causes them the slightest inconvenience. ("I can't keep all my game library neatly under one client? OH NO!") Then they hate it. But you're putting your money where your mouth is. Props.

[lelo2play]

The funny thing is that this exclusive deal only helps Epic and their store. Everybody else looses...

- Deep Silver is going to loose money with less sales on the PC.
- Steam is loosing money with one less AAA game on their launcher.
- Consumers are pissed at Deep Silver for this exclusive deal... less sales with their future games. People aren't going to forget this anytime soon.
- Deep Silver just pissed off Steam (only the biggest PC gaming store). There might be future repercussions...

[Atom666]

Doesn't going exclusive to Epic also mean that DS got paid for doing the deal though? Just like on consoles, you're exchanging timed exclusivity for some form of compensation.

I'm sure all of the negatives were weighed when reaching the agreement. Not saying it might not still hurt them, but I think there's some cushion there.

[Cobra951]

@Atom666: Yeah. No one seems to be looking into that. I'm sure there's some financial deal here to which we're not privy. If we know that keeping the game out of Steam for any significant length of time is bad, you can bet they do too. The only way they agreed to this is with some sweet money guarantees.

[Notellin]

I guarantee no business or marketing employees took into account any of these variables. You're so much smarter than anyone at Deep Silver if they hired you they would be a publishing juggernaut.

[nibblo]

But that's what the internet does - overreacts. It makes it difficult to figure out what is a actual big deal.

[tontontam0]

Steam monopoly FTW. we would'nt see backlash like these if it is exclusive on steam.

[opc]

It might be okay because Deep Silver got all that advertising from Steam before pulling it at the last minute. I wouldn't be surprised if Valve prohibits Deep Silver from pre-orders on Steam going forward.

[Smokehouse]

Dumb move imo. These idiots don’t know their markets. They treat the console market like the mobile market and treat the PC market like the console market lol.

[nucky64]

what specific treatment of each platform makes you think this?

[Smokehouse]

Consoles - fake currency mtx
PC - platform Exclusives

Why would I move to an open platform to deal with exclusives? Why would I want mobile mtx on a full retail game?

[Cobra951]

You're not "dealing with exclusives" on PC here. Steam or Epic "exclusives" are no such thing. All PCs that run Steam games will also run Epic releases, or any other PC games. It's nothing like the complete barrier an Xbox gamer experiences if he wants to play God of War. It may be slightly inconvenient to switch clients, but that's it. And even that process is easily streamlined.

[Smokehouse]

My point is that they are treating the PC market like the console market. Launcher exclusive bullshit is no different than Xbox paying for a timed exclusive. Nobody in the PC market wants that even if it’s just a slight inconvenience. That’s not why I would move to PC personally. Some people like you might like that but I’m just talking in general.

[Scatpants]

Probably. Iknow I hate installing yet another game launcher. With how many games come out now it'll be easy to skip.

[Elda]

Doubt that the game is being released on consoles as well.

[Casepb]

Yeah but consoles sales of a game like this last maybe a few months tops. While on PC it will last for years and years. Down the line this may end up losing them thousands.

[Eldyraen]

Most of those pc sales post Launch I can pretty much guarantee are dirt cheap copies. Metro Redux on PC was free for anyone that owned them on Steam pre-sale, and they even had a huge sale after originally announcing this ($30 for both?).

And after? Redux has been on sale for about $5 each regularly, less than $10 for bundled purchases (pc and console sales actually). The sales numbers of these games on pc “years down the line” are probably literally chump change—especially since Steam still takes 30% out of $5 sales.

Metro’s biggest problem won’t be the epic store deal, it’s the window it releases in general. Far cry is a bigger Name and seller, Crackdown 3 free for game Pass users, and Anthem the week after. And think I still might have missed something.

I’m buying it Day One (on xbox for my x) but I’m not playing it yet as that game, especially going more open world hubs, will take more than a week for me to beat and I want to play anthem at launch because I like learning ins and outs with initial wave as I find it more enjoyable than basically getting dragged along months later by old players (when cooping anything interesting as they know the fights, puzzles, etc and are usually over geared by then too).

[spicelicka]

The only issue i can see is with people who pre-ordered on Steam. Otherwise is it really going to stop people from buying the game on PC if it's just on another free launcher?

[starchild]

It won't stop me from getting it, but I would still prefer it on Steam. I just add all games to my Steam library anyway and launch them from there. But there are some Steam features missing for those games.

[Cobra951]

And if that's possible, then there's even less to moan about, isn't there? I swear; people have become such babies.

[riibhu]

Well since Epic Store doesn't support regional pricing it will stop many gamers outside the US market. Add to that no review system for proper feedback, no dedicated forum for discussion, and many other things that epic lack compared to steam, I say it most certainly will stop a lot of pc gamers from buying it.

[spicelicka]

Those are valid points, specially the pricing one. I'm not sure what impact that will have exactly but it's a sleazy move to announce it this late nonetheless.

[TacoTaco]

Let's do some quick math...

12% of $50 on Epic means they get $44 per game.
30% of $60 on Steam means they would get $42 per game.

So these marketing idiots are going to a store whose userbase now may as well be just freemium Fortnite players, to save $2 per game on a dark and gritty single player game that is opposite in every way. Basically the cost of an energy drink on the way out of a grocery store.

Asinine decision. No way will it sell near the quantity had it remained on Steam.

[Razzer]

We don't know how much money Epic gave them. So from a strictly business standpoint you can't really judge their decision without all the facts.

[cartoonx1]

these early deals are not just 88% to developer, epic is paying them extra which might justified their decision. you need to look the bigger picture its not only the less % cut to epic in these deals.

[spicelicka]

I don't think the userbase argument applies for a free virtual console that anyone can simply download. Logically speaking, the whole reason Epic is doing this IS to get more non-Fortnite userbase to use their launcher.

[Cobra951]

Right. The userbase is PC gamers, not Steam gamers or Epic gamers. It's nothing like console exclusives. You can't turn a PS4 into an Xbox by switching game launchers.

[Eldyraen]

Yes, but by doing this Epic and the publisher also saves us money on a new game and they get to see more profit per copy sold in general. If you refuse that on principle then you’re, imo, an entitled git.

Steam isn’t some essential reality of of gaming infrastructure, but people supporting it as such is part of the problem. Why? Because Epic just proved we could get cheaper games and support Devs better at the same time really. The complete opposite of the whole “well games just cost more to make” line. If they sold it for $60 there then Devs would see an even larger benefit of course, but they didn’t need to (if Steam wasn’t a monopoly as much as it is anyways—that is the problem that’s epic just unveiled, while finding a way to try to push their store of course).

It’s like arguing: “Oh no, I can’t get an achievement or Whatever from steam, but I have more money to spend elsewhere and am also more likely to see a sequel happen”.

“Nah, screw that, I’d have to download another launcher and that might take a minute out of my day and is oh so inconvenient.”

“Oh woe is me, the pc master race with a Steam fixation.”

Sales will fall because of this, no denying that, but people are fixating on that when they should see the underlying truth of it all. Steam is costing gamers a ton of money that the devs don’t ever see, when if they weren’t so greedy we could possibly get cheaper games (Metro probably didn’t cost as much as some other AAA games, so not expecting all $60 to go this route), Devs see more revenue, etc.

Maybe less people would then be using all those out of region cd keys and waiting for huge Steam sales, which is also part of why PC Devs see financial troubles. Before even considering piracy of course.

Devs need to find some way to actually be paid after all. It’s the same with consoles really, MS managed to pick up a lot of studios because it is a very versatile and risky business in general. THQ Nordic (I think? They rebranded themselves with old name I believe) has been doing the same actually.

Steam doesn’t care about that, it’s probably not completely true to even say Epic with this move does, but maybe if Valve had, I don’t know, maybe made games beyond Dota 2 and lived off 30% of other people’s work they wouldn’t be taking such a huge cut to begin with.

Then games and their publishers might not have needed to look for other means to find additional, if theoretical, revenue. Because it won’t sell as much on Epic as steam, but they need to find some happy medium somewhere eventually.

[Seafort]

Epic is going to compensate the publisher for any lost sales. That's the deal Epic signed with all the developers that signed the exclusivity deal to be on the Epic store for a year or more.

I think Epic will run out of money very soon as Metro series was a beloved franchise on Steam with PC gamers. Not a wise move to turn your back on the community that made your game on PC.

[StormSnooper]

Probably will.

[beulahland]

No, no. They wil be fine.

[JEECE]

No, it's definitely better to have a large slice of a tiny pie than a small slice of a large pie.

[Pantz]

Don't worry Dmitri, I got you. Pre-ordered this on Xbox One X :)

PC sales on Steam or Epic would be small in comparison to console sales anyway so don't worry so much.

[Ricegum]

Oh dear.

[TheOptimist]

Ignorance is at a new high.

[isarai]

Doubt it, i don't think they did this move without some financial persuasion from Epic Games. In which case it'll come out fine financially. not to mention it's still coming out on consoles which are two juggernauts of an audience. At most it'll hurt the popularity in the steam community, which is a hit but not a detrimental one.

[theshredded]

NOPE, don't get affected by these vocal minorities on comments and forums. They're over-exaggerating like crybabies. PC gamers go where the game is the cheapest.

[Eldyraen]

That’s why Steam is so popular. Initial sales help but too many people wait for those guaranteed 3-6 month 25-50% price cuts during seasonal sales anyways. We all know they’re coming after all.

CoD was historically one of the very few franchises to hold out lany onger than that.

If Steam didn’t have those sales it probably wouldn’t be near as big.

[Seafort]

Metro Exodus - Steam price £50, Epic store price £50. You were saying?

[theshredded]

In the US. But still most pc gamers I know never buy games day one and own consoles already so it wouldn't affect them that much when they release it on steam for cheaper.

[Tankbusta40]

I'm sure the game will do fine

[sprinterboy]

Kill the series? There are 3 books and this one should conclude the books and the game so "kill the series?

[Eldyraen]

It’s the author that said that. The guy that is probably writing another Metro book eventually, which could then be turned into another game.

If the game doesn’t sell though then it’s less likely that a sequel happens. He can still write more books, but his books will likely be the end of the series in that sense. Not everyone reads these days, unfortunately.

I’d be down for a film one day though, or a Netflix style series. Post Apocalypse is fantastic and it would be cool to have a horror-like apocalypse show in this setting and universe.

[sprinterboy]

As for the sales of metro exodus, they'll be simlar to the other 2 games sales wise. Gem of a game but unfortunatly gamers didn't support it as much as they should tbh.
Netflix is heavily rumoured to have the rights for a one off Netflix original or full series.
Won't see it until 2020 though.

[Eldyraen]

Serious about Netflix thing? I’ll have to look that up as I love the series (books and games).

And yeah, Metro really is underappreciated imo but it has a pretty loyal fans at least. Hopefully we keep it going for as long as possible.

[GOULDYBOBS]

CPY launcher

[OpenGL]

I think it will seriously harm sales on the PC but it won't kill the series because the move has no impact on PS4 or Xbox One, where the series has also become popular this gen due to Redux.

[BadElf]

Ohh calm down

[iain04]

I don’t quite understand the issue here. It’s not that you need a new PC to download Epic. It can sit side by side with Steam on the same machine.

[BrettAwesome]

Depends on the quality of the console versions

[LandoCalrissiano]

Game looks too good. It will sell well. Early looks at it have all been very positive.

[2pacalypsenow]

It's not really a big deal.

I'm just waiting till it shows up on steam and buy it then. Plenty of other game to play while I wait.

[FanboysKiller]

I hope it's not.

[SlagWolf]

I know I won’t be buying it till it’s back on steam and $20. I refuse to touch the Epic launcher now with this buying exclusives shit

[HaVoK308]

No user reviews from verified purchasers = No buy for me.

[BlackRaven85_1]

It's $10 cheaper than what Valve was pricing it. Valve is the one crying over the fact if people like Epic's prices then they'd stop using Steam. That is all this is. It's not about honoring customers. It's about them wanting their bottom dollar.

[Gatsu]

I will wait for Steam release. It's a shame they do this, reminds me of the Tomb Raider timed exclusivity bs. They should just release it on all platforms right from the launch....

[Blu3_Berry]

I don't think it will kill the series, but it will certainly move alot of people away from it.

[ShawnardAgain]

I heard somewhere that like 40% of epic users don't even have steam. So I'm assuming a bunch of kids that just play fortnite. Is that really the audience for this game or the division 2?

[demonicale]

Why do people care?, how does this affect us?

[Sirk7x]

Great games, but I'm just going to wait until it's on sale for $5 like the other two lol.

[annamalinowska]

I like book Glukhowsky so I wait for game :)

[beulahland]

No. It will be fine.

[chris235]

i am sure exodus failing has got nothing to do with the fact that it‘s a mee–too franchise that does nothing to improve anything

[Imortus_san]

Nã, PS4 will sell more, then Xbox, then PC, so it will suvive no problem.

[Bleucrunch]

Wait a minute this is a business right? The gaming industry is a business, albeit disgusting in their practices these days, but a business nonetheless. Steam is crying because a publisher does not to do business and are settling for a competitor...that is called CAPITALISM.

If Steam wants to keep its competitive advantage, then, you know, make your service affordable and attractive so that others will not go to EPIC.

As for the Metro succeeding or failing that is up in the air. The question, are fans of metro who got the game on steam will get it on Epic? I would say its more likely than not, but they will probably not get the same sales though....I suppose the Metro had to have realized that such a move would cost them sales...I TRUST at least.

But providing the game to as many as possible is great, but if one outlet is charging too high a rate to house their game on their console platform then HELL NO why would I as the developer/publisher do this??? I hope they know what they doing.

[RumbleFish]

I will buy it when it's available on steam.