Steam Didn't Mean to Rile Fans Against Epic Games

The war between Valve and the Epic Games Store seems to have cooled a bit: while people will still get outraged when a studio “takes the deal” and decides to go Epic exclusive, it seems the two platforms themselves have stopped trading barbs at one another the way they used to. That’s probably because the early days of this conflict were way messier; specifically, with how the exclusively deal for Metro Exodus ultimately went down, with people who pre-ordered the game on Steam being forced to use the Epic Games Store instead.

Most people agreed – Steam included – that was a pretty dick move. But it seems Steam has come to regret their own strong words on the subject, because they’ve recently issued something like an apology. Or at least, Valve business developer Nathaniel Blue acknowledged to Kotaku that they probably could have handled it better.
 

"In the future we didn’t continue to [speak out against Epic exclusives] because our goal is not to upset the community or light anyone’s hair on fire. Our goal is to get developers close to customers, have a really valuable place for people to play games, and stay focused on that."

 
On a similar subject, he also touched on the problem with review bombing, which has affected games that have decided to take “the deal” and pop over to the Epic Game Store while still having a presence on Steam.
 

"We’re going to constantly work on reviews, because we want them to represent where games are at and the status of games as best as possible. If it doesn’t, then we’re like, 'There’s something wrong we can work on'."

 
Steam has, so far, been very slow to react to Epic Games in any meaningful way, and Epic Games has made no secret that they plan to keep buying exclusives as long as it works. But at least the discourse is nicer now.