Deep Silver has announced that it has deactivated all the stolen Metro Exodus Steam keys which were stolen from a factory. The stolen keys were later sold by an unofficial key seller however all the keys are now deactivated. Players who activated these keys will not be able to play the game anymore.
This was announced by Deep Silver in an official post on Steam where the publisher stated that all Metro Exodus 3rd party site keys have been stolen and are thus illegal so they have been deactivated despite the fact that users paid for them. The complete statement from Deep Silver mentions:
We have been made aware of illegal stolen keys being sold by an unofficial key reseller.
These keys have been obtained illegally from the factory where physical key printing had taken place prior to the announcement of exclusivity with Epic Games, due to the criminal nature of these keys, all unlicensed keys have been deactivated and activation / download of Metro Exodus without the executable file is no longer possible. In addition, the software will be removed from the Steam library of any players using an unauthorised code. The keys being sold on this platform are stolen goods, and are therefore illegal.
If you have been affected we strongly recommend you contact the seller who sold you the unlicensed key and demand a refund.
The only supported key sellers for Metro Exodus were Humblebundle and the Razer store.
Metro Exodus will return to Steam after 14 February 2020.
Metro Exodus was initially coming to Steam and was later made an Epic Games Store exclusive for one year. Fans were not happy because of this decision and it ended up in some serious criticism and fan outcry. However, this recent news makes it look like that fans will go to any lengths to play on Steam and ditch Epic Games Store.
Metro Exodus is now out on PS4, Xbox One and PC via Epic Games Store.
