The whole EPIC store and Metro Exodus issue would be way less scummy if the Publisher just talked to Valve beforehand.
Deep Silver: "Hey Gabe, EPIC offered us a shit-load of money to be exclusive to them for a year. I know it is late notice, but our last 2 games didn't do great at launch, and this guarantees we won't have to shut down the studio".
Gaben: "I understand, games are expensive as fuck to make and we would hate to see the Metro series die, best of luck with your decisions".
Instead they use Steam to market and sell the game until 2 weeks before launch, don't give Valve a heads up, continue releasing news updates on Steam with a trailer that doesn't list Steam as a platform or the new Steam release date, remove the ability to pre-order the game on Steam, even though it does have a release date, piss off a ton of their fans, generate a lot of bad press, and have their previous games Steam reviews nuked from orbit.
This was the worst way to go about this. You know you've fucked up when Valve needs to put a disclaimer on your store page and basically apologize to the Steam community for a publishers bitch move.
