Shenmue III to be Epic Game Store Exclusive

Following a delay that pushed Shenmue 3 from August 2019 to November 2019, news has now surfaced from The PC Gaming Show at E3 that Shenmue III will be exclusive to the Epic Game Store.

Previously, Valve’s Steam client has been listed as a requirement to play Shenmue III. Users who backed Shenmue III on Kickstarter over the years have also had an option to receive keys for the game for Steam, and the announcement of the Epic Store exclusivity has apparently lead to massive spike in refund requests. What’s more, Shenmue 1 & 2 are available on Steam, but as of yet, have not resurfaced on the Epic Store. In the Kickstarter update, YsNet, the developers of Shenmue 3, had this to say:

We are happy to announce that Shenmue III for PC will be will be an Epic Games Store exclusive. Development for Shenmue III has been moving forward using Unreal Engine and the support we have received from Epic has been excellent. But most importantly, in looking for the most enjoyable experience on PC, it was decided together with Deep Silver after much discussion that the Epic Games Store would be the best distribution platform option.

The Epic Game Store has come under fire lately for aggressively buying up exclusives like this, irrespective of what’s already been set in stone. While many admitted it was nice for Steam to have friendly competition at first, things have quickly begun turning sour as Epic prioritized spending millions of dollars on exclusive games over building a functional storefront. Many basic features, like simply having a shopping cart to buy multiple items at once, are still non-functional on the Epic Store after months of operation, while expensive exclusives pile up — sometimes bought out mere weeks before launch. The features of the Epic Store don’t even compare to notoriously-hated storefronts like Ubisoft’s Uplay or EA’s Origin.

Epic Games has also come under fire for their aggressive development practices, as more and more who work there speak out on the nightmare of working overtime on constant Fortnite updates, adding fuel to the fire for some.

Does this matter to you? Will you be getting Shenmue III on a console instead of on the PC? Let us know.