Late in January this year, the fight between Steam and the Epic Games Store escalated as Metro Exodus was pulled from Steam weeks before the game’s release date to become one of the first big Epic Games Store exclusives. That was also the last time that Valve directly commented on and Epic Games Store exclusive, calling it unfair to Steam customers since pre-orders were open for quite some time.
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Valve has been relatively silent on the matter of exclusives since then and now, finally, we know why. Many PC gamers still prefer Steam as their digital distribution platform of choice and defend the platform vigilantly. Steam has been around for well over a decade and it has been the go-to platform for PC gamers, offering great deals through those big sales, while the Epic Games Store is still relatively new and doesn’t have all the features of Steam.
Now, Steam business developer, Nathaniel Blue, has revealed to Kotaku why Valve doesn’t comment on Epic Games Store exclusives anymore. Valve didn’t intend for people to get upset but their words on Metro Exodus (calling it unfair etc.) acted as a “lightning rod” as everyone involved in the Metro Exodus project, including the author of the novel, got harassed by angry fans.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#1ced22″ class=”” size=”22″]I don’t know that we’d go back in time and change it necessarily, but I can say that in the future we didn’t say anything. In the future, we didn’t continue to do that because our goal is not to upset the community or light anyone’s hair on fire. Our goal is to get developers close to customers, have a really valuable place for people to play games, and stay focused on that.[/perfectpullquote]
We’ve already seen people not wanting to play one of the biggest games this year (Borderlands 3) on PC as it is a timed Epic Games Store exclusive and these types of exclusives as well as permanent exclusives, probably won’t stop any time soon.
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What do you think about exclusives and the reason why Valve went silent on the issue? Let us know in the comment section below.
