Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

At its GDC 2019 keynote, Epic announced a partnership with the subscription-bundles-for-charity Humble Store to sell keys to Epic games -- most notably, giving gamers an alternative to buying exclusives like Metro Exodus and upcoming The Sinking City directly from Epic. Epic says it won't take a cut out of sales from Humble as it does from its own store.

Epic's policy of partnering with publishers for exclusives has been controversial, so this might alleviate some of the criticism that's been leveled at the company.

It's also been bashed for its rather anemic launcher, and the company posted a road map recently that shows the steps it will be taking to rectify the lack of features relative to Steam's. It indicates that within the next six months we should see cloud saves, wish lists, users reviews, an overlay and more.

The head of Epic Games Store, Steve Allison, took the opportunity to offer vague sales information about Metro Exodus; Epic's taken a lot of heat for co-opting the game as an exclusive a few weeks before launch after a long marketing run on Steam. It's sold 2.5 times more units of Exodus than the last Metro title, Metro: Last Light, that it sold on Steam, which he said proves "it's about the games, not about the store."