(AfroGamers.com) Despite being a good game, Metro Exodus hasn’t received very positive reviews. Reason? The publisher Deep Silver messed up the game’s success by making it an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC. This resulted in a massive boycott of Metro Exodus and review bombing. But surprisingly, this mistake didn’t hurt the company like how many people thought it would. In fact, Metro Exodus sold 2.5 times more and outsold its predecessor Metro: Last Light.
When Deep Silver announced that Metro Exodus would be an Epic Store exclusive for a year, the game was close to its release and people had already pre-ordered the game on Steam from where it was pulled off entirely. The controversial decision led fans to review bomb previous games of the company. During a Q&A session at GDC 2019, Epic Store head Steve Allison said that the company doesn’t want to do that ever again. He also said that in the future, decisions will be made earlier.
Although Allison’s statement brought some relief to the company in its damage control exercise, a 4A Games developer made the situation worse by warning fans against review bombing. On a Russian message board, the developer said that those who are review bombing Metro games or encouraging others to boycott Metro Exodus, don’t know how hard the game developers have worked on these games. He also said that if people don’t stop here, chances are the next game from the Metro franchise would not be released on PC at all.
4A Games later released a statement on the developer’s comments. The company’s official statement reads the comments made by a 4A Games development team member do not reflect 4A Game’s or Deep Silver’s view on the franchise’s future. Despite all this, the sales didn’t get badly affected. Fans’ anger has not created any actual problems for the company or the sales of Metro Exodus. The mistake Deep Silver made actually turned out to be good for the company.
During the first month, the game secured the second position on the UK’s sales chart. If you compare the sales, Metro Exodus sold 2.5 times more than Metro: Last Light. In figures, it is more than 50 percent. As a new popular PS4 game, Metro Exodus secured the seventh position among the best selling games during the launch week. That being said, this controversial idea also turned out to be a profit-making decision for Deep Silver.
When a game is sold via Steam, Valve takes about 30 percent of the sales, unless the game is a top earner. Epic Store, on the other hand, gives Unreal Engine license for free and takes only 12 percent on sales. So ultimately, it’s a win-win for the company. It seems like tides are shifting as Epic Store is becoming popular among game developers. Gone are the days when Steam was the only king in the world of PC gaming.
Epic has announced many new games coming to the store. The company has confirmed that the store will bring titles like Control, Detroit: Become Human, Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, The Sinking City, Remedy’s Control, Afterparty and more.
Epic Store has also announced individual grants ranging from $5000 to $500,000. The company also launched a $100 million grant program for developers. The studio is already helping game developers through its unique revenue sharing model which turned out to be amazing for Metro Exodus.
It’s undeniable that Deep Silver’s decision has brought aha! moments for the company in terms of sales. Many fans were hurt, but the insane review bombing didn’t hurt the company. Sometimes you think about the worse, and later you find out that it was much less horrible than you imagine. Probably, this was the case with Metro Exodus publisher. If you’ve not played the game yet, try it because it is the best game in the series so far. It is arguably one of the best post-apocalyptic games you can play.
Staff Writer; Jay Baker
Have any Gaming Tips? News? Hit up our Video Games Guru at; JayBaker@AfroGamers.com.