THQ Nordic claims the controversial decision to yank Metro Exodus from Steam and launch it as a timed-exclusive on the Epic Games Store was made entirely by Koch Media, which owns the Metro game property.

Although THQ Nordic purchased both Koch Media and its publishing division Deep Silver back in 2018, the company today wrote a tweet explaining "the decision to publish Metro Exodus as a timed Epic Store exclusive was made entirely on Koch Media's side as Metro is their intellectual property. They are a sister company of THQ Nordic Vienna, which is the reason why we can and will not comment on this matter."

While the deal itself is notable as being the second big-name title Epic has poached from Steam in recent weeks, it's interesting to see Koch's parent company distance itself from the move.

"We do not want to categorically exclude the possibility of timed exclusives for any of our games in the future," THQ Nordic added, "but speaking in the here and now, we definitely want to have the players choose the platform of their liking and make our portfolio available to as many outlets as possible."

As for how the deal unfolded, Deep Silver chief exec Dr. Klemens Kundratitz explained the publisher wanted to take advantage of the Epic Games Store's "generous revenue share," which would see the company take an 88 percent revenue split compared to the standard 70 percent. 

The folks over at Steam weren't impressed, however, and although Metro Exodus will return to Valve's marketplace in February 2020, the company branded the deal "unfair."

"We think the decision to remove the game is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long pre-sale period," it wrote in an update on the game's Steam page. "We apologize to Steam customers that were expecting it to be available for sale through the February 15 release date, but we were only recently informed of the decision and given limited time to let everyone know."