There has been a lot of debate in the PC gaming community regarding Epic Games Store exclusives and the fight between Steam and the Epic Games Store reached new heights when Metro Exodus was pulled from Steam. This was after pre-orders for the game opened up and recently, the same thing happened to Anno 1800 and Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered. Yesterday, it was revealed that Borderlands 3 will be a timed-exclusive on the Epic Games Store.
For those who prefer Steam as their distribution platform of choice, things won’t get any better. Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, has made it clear that they will continue snagging exclusives for the Epic Games Store if the developers and publishers are willing.
This is a pretty big deal if you ask me, especially since at Epic Games Store head Steve Allison said at the GDC recently that “We don’t want to do that ever again”. Continuing to explain that: “We had been talking to those guys for a number of months and they made some decisions on their end – this is not a throw under the bus thing, it’s just the timing of where that came together and what was important to their business – we decided to do it together, we both knew there was the potential for the thing that happened in terms of communication.”
Well, that happened again as pre-orders for Anno 1800, for example, was already open on Steam before it was pulled and became an Epic Games Store exclusive. Now, Tim Sweeney has explained that Epic will continue with Epic Games Store exclusives, stating that:
We’ve had a lot of discussions about this since GDC. Epic is open to continuing to sign funding / exclusivity deals with willing developers and publishers regardless of their previous plans or announcements around Steam.
Mr Sweeney also noted that the whole Metro Exodus debacle prompted discussion the matter:
This prompted further discussions at Epic, leading to the realization that these calls must be up to developers and publishers, and Epic wouldn’t tell them “no” on account of existing statements made about Steam.
RELATED: Another Big Game Getting Pulled From Steam in Favour of The Epic Games Store
What do you think about the idea of Epic Games Store exclusives and do you still prefer Steam above anything else for your PC gaming needs? Let us know in the comment section below.
