CEO of Epic Games Tim Sweeney said on his Twitter that the Epic Games Store would continue to sign exclusivity deals with developers and publishers regardless of their previous intentions/announcements to release on Steam.

We've had a lot of discussions about this since GDC. Epic is open to continuing to sign funding / exclusivity deals with willing developers and publishers regardless of their previous plans or announcements around Steam.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 1, 2019

This comes despite a recent interview at GDC where Sweeney said that the Epic Games Store never wanted to make a mistake like the Metro Exodus controversy that angered fans.

“We don’t want to do that ever again. And I think we’re not in a situation now where that could ever happen, because now we’re live and we have a view out in time, and we can work with everybody … We have a case study where it says ‘maybe we should make our decisions earlier,’ and we will.”

Despite Sweeney’s claiming the company would attempt conduct themselves in a way that wouldn’t anger fans in that way again Sweeney says that the Epic Games Store will continue to sign exclusivity and funding deals even if it will result in another Metro Exodus-style controversy.

One Twitter user responded to Sweeney’s words with one of his own quotes in an interview with PCGamer.

“The thing that I feel is incredibly important for the future of the industry is that the PC platform remains open, so that any user without any friction can install applications from any developer, and ensure that no company, Microsoft or anybody else, can insert themselves by force as the universal middleman, and force developers to sell through them instead of selling directly to customers.”

Although the Epic Games Store has definitely claimed its space within the PC gaming platform, it doesn’t seem to have a good place in many PC gamers’ minds. Many have still lashed out at at the store’s divisive use of exclusivity, its lack of competitive features, its extremely open ended EULA, and its poor regional support.

It goes without saying that the Epic Games Store is not a good platform. Even EA’s Origin has more features than it, but the Epic Games Store’s exclusivity deals are working to keep it competitive.