Metro Exodus’ long, bumpy ride to a February 15 release on the Epic Games Store has just hit another roadblock. Over the weekend, a developer at series creator 4A Games suggested that player boycotts happening in reaction to the Epic deal could lead to future Metro games not coming to PC at all. Now, publisher Deep Silver has refuted this.
The 4A developer, who goes by “Scynet” on the Russian gaming forum where he posted his opinionated missive, acknowledged the potential inconvenience of installing a new and, thus far, barebones launcher to play Exodus, but admonished some people for using this as an excuse to “pour out their bile.” He went on to say that if “all PC players announce a boycott of Metro [Exodus], then the next Metro,” if it happens, “is definitely not on the PC.”
This post set off a chain reaction of negative responses on Reddit and Steam, which prompted Deep Silver to issue a statement yesterday on Twitter. In it, Deep Silver said that it sent Exodus on a last-minute arctic expedition to Epic Land with the goal of “investing in the future of the series and our development partner at 4A Games... we have every intention of continuing this franchise, and a PC version will always be at the heart of our plans.”
The publisher also clarified that it—not 4A Games—made the call to move Exodus to Epic’s service and that “comments made by a member of the 4A Games development team do not reflect Deep Silver’s or 4A Games’ view on the future of the franchise.” However, Deep Silver’s statement acknowledged that those comments do “reflect the hurt and disappointment of a passionate individual who has seen what was previously nothing but positive goodwill towards his work turn to controversy due to a business decision he had no control over.” The statement concluded by asking fans to direct feedback about the deal to Deep Silver and parent company Koch Media.