It appears that stolen Metro Exodus Keys have made their way around to customers. According to a post on the Steam forum, these keys are being sold via “an unofficial key reseller” and were stolen during their time of physical printing. Because these keys are illegal, none of them will work from this point on. Users who redeemed a stolen code will no longer be able to run the game. Additionally, Metro Exodus will no longer appear in the library of anyone with an unlicensed key.
Publisher Deep Silver doesn’t have much to offer players who have been affected. Those in question should “contact the seller who sold you the unlicensed key and demand a refund,” reads the post. The only official third-party storefronts were Humble Bundle and the Razer Store. This is aside from the Epic Games Store and Steam, of course.
A developer comment states that Deep Silver was previously unaware of the stolen codes. After a while, community members noticed that copies from the reseller in question were no longer updating. The publisher investigated and discovered the truth. That said, those who reported the issue may have to rethink their purchasing decisions.
The situation stirs up some debate around third-party resellers. While platforms like Steam and Epic Games are official game distributors, some users head to platforms like G2a in order to save some money on keys. However, it’s never clear how these resellers get keys so cheap, and some believe it to be theft. In this case, buyer remorse stems from working with an unlicensed party.
This case is not related to the Epic Games Store controversy, where developer 4A Games and Deep Silver announced last minute that Metro Exodus will no longer launch on Steam. Instead, it became an Epic Store exclusive, though pre-orders on Steam will still be honored. Metro Exodus will still be available through Steam on February 14th, 2020.
