Epic Games Store is looking to extend its library of playable titles by poaching Steam games through a tactic called “timed exclusives” or “exclusives.” This deal holds PC games from the giant that is Steam not for a week, not six months, but for an entire year or forever. Well, it looks like Zen Studios up and coming RPG, Operencia: The Stolen Sun, will no longer launch this year on Steam due to this exclusive deal with Epic Game Store.
The growing trend of timed exclusives that Epic Game Store is building up has really kicked-off this week. The trend even exposed the devs behind Metro: Exodus shady practice by contradicting something that THQ Nordic had said back in 2018 on Twitter:
Have you already discovered @EpicGames new store? You might even find one of our games there… 😉 https://t.co/yWFWCIKzeZ
— THQ Nordic 🔜 SOUTH PARK: SNOW DAY! ❄️ (@THQNordic) December 7, 2018
don't worry. we have over 40 partners in the digital hemisphere, and there is no exclusivity planned in any capacity at this stage.
— THQ Nordic 🔜 SOUTH PARK: SNOW DAY! ❄️ (@THQNordic) December 7, 2018
The decision to publish Metro Exodus as a timed Epic Store exclusive was made entirely on Koch Media’s side as Metro is their intellectual property. They are a sister company of THQ Nordic (Vienna), which is the reason why we can and will not comment on this matter.
— THQ Nordic 🔜 SOUTH PARK: SNOW DAY! ❄️ (@THQNordic) January 29, 2019
Pulling the same card as the devs behind Metro: Exodus comes that of Zen Studios and Operencia: The Stolen Sun. In 2018, the lead writer, Chris Baker, noted that the game is coming to PC via Steam in 2019.
I can finally let you know! I've spent most of 2018 working as lead writer for Operencia: The Stolen Sun. (Follow @OperenciaRPG!) It's an awesome first-person dungeon-crawler backed by an incredibly passionate team at @zen_studios. https://t.co/2IZbTmZ7QH
Thanks, #KFGShowcase! pic.twitter.com/bKrunMSwne— Chris Baker | ScorpionVader.com (@cbake76) December 8, 2018
This would be false as of now when Zen Studios took to a blog post on January 30th, 2019, to relay the following on Twitter:
"It will be available in 2019 on Steam, with other platforms to be announced in the future." That was less than two months ago. Well, good luck I guess, hope the payout is epic enough to be worth it.
— Mika (@Parsnippu) January 30, 2019
Whether or not you have heard of this first-person, old-school, dungeon crawler RPG do know that a dedicated number of gamers were actually looking forward to this game. We know this due to the number of people displeased with the Epic Game Store exclusive deal over on the title’s Steam community page.
From here on out, don’t be shocked if more titles pop up throughout the month of February and beyond jumping on the timed or exclusive train to only abandoned people who waited patiently for a (un)finished product to be held captive by an exclusive partnership.
Lastly, whether you love or hate Metro: Exodus or Operencia: The Stolen Sun, if you game on PC via Steam and haven’t pre-order the former title look to gain access to it sometime in 2020 and the latter is out of the question for said platform.
