Valve must be… Steam(ing).

Update (29 January): Videogamer has reported that the exclusivity deal between Deep Silver and Epic Games will only last until 2020. Valve has addressed the situation, saying that “we think the decision to remove the game is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long pre-sale period,’ said the company.”

Metro Exodus is the latest title that PC players will only be able to pick up through the Epic Games Store after Deep Silver reached an agreement with the digital outlet. The third instalment of the Metro series, Exodus will be coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC on February 15.

Announcing the exclusive partnership between Deep Silver and Epic, CEO Tim Sweeney said that the deal was “underpinned by Epic’s marketing support and commitment to offering an 88% revenue split, enabling game creators to further reinvest in building great games and improving the economics of game stores for everybody.” And that attractive revenue split was echoed by Deep Silver’s CEO, who explained that “Epic’s generous revenue terms are a game changer that will allow publishers to invest more into content creation, or pass on savings to the players.” An interesting idea, sure, but as it stands, the PC version of Metro Exodus’ Standard Edition is available for £50/$50/€60, what was that about savings?

The agreement marks another blow for Valve’s Steam Store, which has seen indie titles like Ashen and Hades already moving over to Epic on an exclusive deal, while blockbuster title The Division 2 marks the beginning of an exclusive partnership between Ubisoft and Epic (well, you can still pick up Ubisoft games with Uplay).

Thankfully, if you’ve already pre-ordered Metro Exodus through Steam or any other digital outlet you will still get the game but any pre-orders you make from today will only be available through the Epic Games Store, as will be the case when the title launches on February 15.

We previewed a bit of Metro Exodus not too long ago and thought it felt like a big departure from what we’ve seen previously yet still managed to keep that oh-so-Metro feel about things.