The Epic Metro scuffle

A story broke late last week concerning the upcoming game Metro Exodus, the third game in the post-apocalyptic Metro series.

The game had been prominently featured on Steam for weeks with pre-orders front and center. Then, out of the blue, the game gets pulled from Steam and moved to the new Epic Games store. Valve was forced to issue a (angry) statement explaining that this was not their doing, but that anyone who had pre-ordered this game would still get it on launch. No one else can buy this game on Steam until a year from now.

To say people were furious is an understatement. Posts appeared across the net calling the move everything from unfair to criminal. Some more, lets call them passionate, people started review bombing the other Metro games on Steam while others loudly called for boycotts and piracy.

As a disclaimer, I want to say that review bombing, i.e, giving the other games negative reviews because of events not connected with them is scummy in itself. And piracy is illegal. Let's leave that there.

On Saturday, one of the developers of Metro Exodus (and I assume, the others in the series), Scynet, wrote a very angry post on a Russian game site venting his frustrations. In a nutshell he stated that if Exodus gets boycotted and pirated, then the next Metro game won't be on PC at all. He added some comments about how people who aren't developers can't do what he does, so their opinion doesn't count. I'm sure he farms his own food and attends to his own medical needs as well...

More importantly, he said and I quote:

“That is, it turns out that we (the developers) for years have been hard and painful, with losses, trying to do something special, but a certain category of players believes that our work is not worth even a couple of minutes to install the launcher. Naturally, it is their life and their right, but then what do they care about the Metro?”

Note the “couple of minutes to install the launcher”, we'll get back to that.

Yesterday, a spokesperson for Metro's developer, 4A, stated that the post was only Scynet's private opinion and a reflection of the frustration he felt at receiving such hate and vitriol for something he can't control. The spokesperson went on to say that of course the next game will be on PC. Finally he added that the decision to suddenly move from Steam to Epic lies with the publisher, Deep Silver, and their parent company Koch Media. (apparently not affiliated with the American Koch brothers). Any and all criticism should be sent their way, he added.

So, Epic Games new store...

When Scynet said “a couple of minutes to install the launcher” he completely missed the point. I've read hundreds and hundreds of posts on Reddit and Youtube about this, and of course opinions go from “I don't care” to “Burn all the things”. There are however lots of people who agree with my opinion:

It's not about a couple of minutes to install a launcher. It's about trust and service, and I don't trust Epic Games, and they don't deliver the service. Yes, they are very new and so was Steam back in the day. BUT – no one had done what Valve did. They had no examples to follow. Epic has all the examples they need! Steam, GoG, Uplay, Origins, etc... and they still don't seem to get it.

Let's look at service first.

As of writing this, Epic has only two basic services in common with Steam: Friends list + chat, and Refunds, and the refunds policy is really new. Their old one forced you to divulge IP address and tons of invasive personal data, but it's now the same as Steam.

All other features found on Steam are missing from Epic including; Linux and Mac support, gifting and trading, user reviews, cloud saves, forums, broadcasting and streaming, library sorting, etc. The list goes on.

On top of this comes the security concerns. Epic is partially (40%) owned by Tencent and rumors have been flying around for years about their connections to Chinese espionage. That may or may not be nonsense, but there are no such rumors about any other game companies that I've heard of.

On top of the espionage is the fact that the Epic Store is not compliant with GDPR, in other words they are not properly protecting your data. Data that includes your credit card number, as that is saved automatically, without asking for your consent. With other services like the Playstation Store being hacked and card details stolen, Epic's refusal to comply with security standards in a big NO from me.

Beyond security comes price. Epic doesn't do any other currency than US dollar, which means that a game that costs (rough numbers) $50 becomes 60 in Europe, 70 in Brazil, and 80 in Australia.

We still haven't talked about splitting your games library between too many services, the toxic effect exclusivity has in splitting the gaming community and other issues, but I think I've gone on long enough – especially since I don't personally care for the Metro games anyway. But fair warning, use the Epic Store at your own risk, it may all be safe and above board, I'm not risking it.

That's all, so until next time, have a calm and safe week!