After being a 1 year timed exclusive for the Epic Games Store, 4A Games has has announced that Metro Exodus on PC will be returning to Steam next week on February 15, Saturday. The title was one of the first of many to “jump ship”  from Steam after Epic revealed their own digital storefront, directly challenging Valve and others in the process. While some gamers may not have liked the new business practice, it has definitely changed the landscape of the video game market.

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. pic.twitter.com/gouNZkgFUL

— Metro Exodus (@MetroVideoGame) February 6, 2020

This is an especially sincere moment for those who were waiting for Metro Exodus’s return to Steam, as the game was originally announced for the platform long before Epic joined the fray. When 4A announced the exclusivity with Epic, pre-orders were already open through Steam, creating some confusion in the process. Valve stated that they would honor those who pre-ordered the game on their storefront, while 4A stated that those who ordered any physical copies would now get a game key for the Epic Games Store.

It couldn’t be better timing either, as Metro Exodus’s second major expansion, Sam’s Story, will be launching that very week. The expansion will have you play as Sam, trying to make his way back home to the United States. The story will contain the same open world survival elements found in the main game’s narrative. The first expansion, The Two Colonels, was a bit more linear, similar to the first two games in the series, Metro 2033, and Metro Last Light. 

While the game would go onto be generally well received, the entire situation left a bad taste in the mouth of some gamers. As we stated earlier, other companies would follow suit such as Remedy Entertainment with Control, and Gearbox with Borderlands 3, as Epic appeared to spare no expense when it came to bringing in big name titles for their platform. Now that some of those titles 1 year exclusivity deals end soon, the new question will be what they’re going to do to keep them on forever?

Metro Exodus and all of its DLC will be available on PC through Steam next week on February 15. It’s available now through the Epic Games Store, and for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. You can check out the Steam Store page here.