A hot potato: How do you feel about the news that Metro Exodus will be an Epic Games Store exclusive for the first year after release? Pleased? Indifferent? It seems some people are pretty angry about it. So angry, in fact, that they've taken to review bombing the previous two Metro games on Steam.
Earlier this week, Metro publisher Deep Silver revealed that the upcoming Metro Exodus would be sold exclusively on its new store until February 15, 2020.
Because Epic's cut of a game's revenue is more favorable to developers---it takes 12 percent, compared to Steam's 25 - 30 percent---Exodus is cheaper on its Store ($50).
Exodus had been available for pre-order on Steam, and while Epic plans to honor all these purchases, many people are unhappy about being forced onto a different launcher, especially one that lacks so many of Steam's most popular features.
To show their displeasure, people are leaving negative reviews on the Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light Steam pages. Most of these admit they're not related to the games themselves, but are protests against Exodus' Epic Games Store exclusivity.
Metro 2033 Redux has received 3,972 negative reviews since launching almost five years ago (25,865 positive), but almost 1,350 of those came in the last four days. Last Light Redux, meanwhile, has 2980 negative reviews, just over 1,300 of which were posted this week.
"Let me just rate this game negatively while Deep Silver sucks Epic's [censored by Steam] in the next room," wrote one reviewer.
Review bombing for reasons not related to a game's content isn't a new phenomenon. It happened with Shadow of the Tomb Raider after it went on sale soon after release, and to Firewatch after developer Sean Vanaman tweeted that he was filing a DMCA takedown against PewDiePie.
If you intend on buying Metro Exodus, check out the game's PC requirements right here.