Last week the news broke that the upcoming title, Metro Exodus (the highly anticipated third entry into the Metro series), would be launching exclusively on the Epic Store for a year. This news was met with a lot of controversy, with most people agreeing that the move was the wrong one to make. After huge community backlash, one of the developers of 4A games took to Russian board ‘GAMEINATOR’ to speak his mind, touching on the hurt that the individuals at 4A received when their previous games were getting review bombed on Steam following the announcement:
I watched the bubbling. Impressions are twofold. On the one hand, the withdrawal from Steam is ambiguous, so no one has done so sharply (as far as I can tell). This is new, which could cause rejection. Yes, and such a move pulls the need to install the Epic launcher, which could cause some inconvenience to the players, and therefore cause discontent. On the other hand, the reaction of a certain category of players is hardly adequate. It seems that people did not want to play, just waited for a reason to pour out their bile. 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 Metro? Obviously, it is not interesting to them. I can only say that they were not our players either, they are not interested in our work, which means that, for example, the opinion of such people is not interesting for me either. What is the point for me personally (and not only) to listen to their opinion? But! Consider the situation deeper. Someone says that if they crap Exodus and the previous games in the series, it will make the world better, they will put greedy developers in their place. To this, I can answer that in a pinch, if all the PC players announce a boycott of Metro Exodus, then the next Metro, if it does, is definitely not going to be on the PC. Better or worse, decide for yourself. I personally feel sorry for the loyal fans, yes. But my assessment of the work done personally by me and my friends and colleagues will not change this. I firmly know that almost everyone who pours this dirt on the net is also incapable of a bit of what we have done and hopefully do more. And that means they have no idea what they are talking about. And further. Despite the fact that during the development I went through each level of each game, hell knows how many times, it is interesting for me to play Metro. I went through the previous parts completely and more than once, and now I am going to go through the whole PC version, to which we make the final touches. For me, this is already a tradition, I always replay the game completely before release. It allows you to evaluate the work done. What is it for me? I remember the words of the Prof, which I have heard more than once, both from myself and on the Internet – the game must be made for myself, so that you like it first. And only now do I begin to understand this fully – no clever man can shake me about the value of the work that we have done. And there will always be disgruntled. – statement taken from TwinFinite
Deep Silver, the publisher for Metro Exodus, has released a statement, clarifying that all comments and feedback on the matter should be directed at Koch Media/Deep Silver, as the folks over at 4A Games had nothing to do with the strange business decision. The publisher stated “They [the dev’s words] 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.” Deep Silver also went on to say that the decision was made based on the goal of investing in the future of the Metro series as well as for the future of the developer 4A Games.
We have every intention of continuing this franchise, and a PC version will always be at teh heart of our plans.” – Deep Silver via Facebook
Jordan lives and breathes Dark Souls, even though his favourite game is Bloodborne. He takes pride in bashing his face on walls and praising the sun. Hailing from the land of tacos, he is the token minority for WellPlayed.
