It seems that Steam and Valve have had enough of their many issues with exclusivity and the Epic Games Store.

Epic Games and Valve have been going head-to-head for a while now, with Epic nabbing lots of exclusive games, including titles like Metro Exodus and Borderlands 3, much to the anger of Steam gamers.

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Credit: Valve

Now it seems as though Valve is taking action against this happening in the future, if Reddit is to be believed.

In a post from Reddit user GTVA_Alpha1, the user shares an image from the Steam distribution agreement, which shows off a new stipulation that “could effect exclusives going to other stores.”

The new addition to the distribution agreement reportedly reads: “Company shall submit the Applications to Steam for release no later than the first commercial release of each Application or Localized Version, or, if already commercially released as of the Effective Date, within thirty (30) days of the Effective Date.

Credit: Epic Games

“Thereafter, Company shall submit to Steam any Localized Versions and Application Updates (in beta and final form) when available, but in no event later than they are provided to any other third party for commercial release. Company shall provide these copies in object code form, in whatever format Valve reasonably requests.”

Redditor Sangmund_Froid breaks down all the legal jargon in the thread’s comment section, writing: “From what I read it’s exactly what it means. If [game developers] submit it to be on Steam it must release at the same time as any other platform, no exceptions.”

Credit: Valve

MrBubbaJ also adds some clarification to the message, writing: “There are two situations covered in this clause.

“If the game hasn’t released and a developer creates a page for the game, they must release on Steam at the same time it is released on other stores. This would prevent staggering release dates on different platforms. Some pages are created years in advance of release, which they still could, but they are committing to not leaving Steam.

“The other situation is where a game has already been released. If it is post-release, a page cannot be created greater than 30 days before release. So, BL3 can’t open their page until February if they plan to release in March. Games like Fallout 76 would also fall into this category.”

Credit: Epic Games

It’s an interesting move from Valve, and it’ll be interesting to see how the new clause changes the way exclusives are handled between Valve and Epic Games…

Featured Image Credit: Valve