Steam Loses Another Game, Presumably To Epic

Although it hasn't been confirmed, it looks like Anno 1800 is becoming an Epic Games Store exclusive. Originally scheduled for a Steam release, Anno 1800 will be discontinued on Steam after its release date of April 16.

We'll update this story when we confirm which PC game store Anno 1800 is going to.

"Sales of Anno 1800 will be discontinued on Steam after April 16th due to a publisher decision to make the game exclusive to another PC store," a notice on Anno 1800's Steam page reads. "The publisher has assured us that all prior sales of the game on Steam will be fulfilled on Steam, and Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam."

The notice doesn't list what other store is getting the exclusive, but given what's happened over the past few months, it makes sense to assume it's Epic. Since 2018, several titles have left Steam just prior to release and gone to Epic instead. Some games have even been pretty major triple-A titles too, such as Metro Exodus and The Division 2. Prior to Anno 1800, Borderlands 3 was the latest triple-A title to join the Epic Games Store as an exclusive, although it's only an exclusive for six months as opposed to other titles' year-long exclusivity.

Also, when Ubisoft announced The Division 2 would be an Epic exclusive, Epic revealed that its partnership with Ubisoft would continue with "additional select titles." No further details were supplied at the time, but Epic did tease that those titles are all scheduled for release "during the coming year." Anno 1800 fits that criteria, so it would make sense to see the game launch on Epic come April 16.

There's been a lot of vocal discontent for games that launch exclusively on Epic, especially if the titles were initially scheduled for release on Steam. After the announcement that Metro Exodus would be leaving Steam for Epic, both Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light were heavily review bombed by players disappointed in the decision. The same happened to Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel after the reveal that Borderlands 3 would be an Epic timed exclusive.