Deep Silver have announced Metro Exodus will return to Steam.

The announcement came via the official Metro Exodus Twitter account, stating the following:

“Journey beyond in the critically acclaimed #MetroExodus – returning to the Steam Store on Saturday 15th February 2020. Release times as follows:

00:00 ET
5:00 GMT / UTC
6:00 CET
6:00 AEDT

Those of you that have been waiting, thank you for your passion and patience.”

For those unfamiliar, Deep Silver announced that Metro Exodus would become an Epic Games Store exclusive title on January 28th, 2019, despite the game already being listed (and accepting pre-orders) on Steam. This was in spite of terms that may have existing since 2017 preventing it.

The outrage was so bad, an alleged 4A Games developer stated the PC version is boycotted and sells poorly, the developer will abandon the platform in future releases of the franchise. Deep Silver and 4A Games later released a statement reaffirming the franchise’ commitment to the PC platform. 

Further more, Metro series creator Dmitry Glukhovsky stated that he “did not have an impression that Steam gives a shit,” and that he thinks “Epic will [do] everything to help.”

Similar incidents seemed to drive away others from becoming Epic Games exclusive, including Bandai Namco , Microsoft, and Unfold Games with their title Darq. Wlad Marhulets, one of the game’s developers, even said “pulling the game off Steam a few days after Steam release date announcement would forever ruin the credibility of my studio.”

It has not been smooth sailing for the Epic Game Store, with many criticizing how bare-bones the store was when it launched. These missing features came to a head in the May 2019 “mega sale”- beset with technical issues such as customers buying too many games at once.

Some games were also quickly pulled form sale, causing many to believe that Epic had placed the games on sale without the publisher’s permission. No such accusation was confirmed however.

Just days after that, Epic Games then sent GDPR personal information to the wrong person.

Will Metro fans welcome Metro Exodus back with open arms? What do you think? Sound off in the comments below!

Metro Exodus now available for Windows PC (via the Epic Games Store, and Steam on February 15th), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In case you missed it, you can find our thorough review for the game here (we highly recommend it!).