Metro Exodus, true to its name, is exiting Steam. The post-apocalyptic shooter will only appear on the Epic Games Store when it launches on February 15, and will stay there exclusively until 2020. Valve is not remaining silent about it.




Metro is far from the first exclusive the Epic Games Store has locked down since its launch last December, with other big-name games like Hades, Ashen, and Super Meat Boy Forever also confined to Epic’s freshly lacquered shelves for now. But this deal appears to have been a last-minute move, since Exodus was already available for pre-orders on Steam.



Today, Valve posted a notice to the Metro Exodus Steam page. “We think the decision to remove the game is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long pre-sale period,” the company wrote. “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.”




On the upside, both Valve and Metro publisher Deep Silver have said that Steam pre-orders will be honored on the Epic Games Store, as will previously-purchased pre-order bonuses, expansion passes, and DLC.



Epic’s standard exclusivity period so far has been one year, and Metro is following suit: Deep Silver says it’ll be on sale on Steam and “other storefronts” after February 14, 2020. An emailed statement from Deep Silver noted that “all future DLC for Metro Exodus will be released sim ultaneously on all platforms,” suggesting a situation could potentially arise in which Metro Exodus is not on Steam, but its DLC is.