The pending removal of shooter game Metro Exodus from Steam has many purchasing the game before it is completely removed. The game quickly bumped to the #1 top selling game on the digital store.

Earlier today publisher Deep Silver announced it will be removing the shooter game from Steam because it was able to negotiate an exclusivity deal with Epic Games to sell the game on its Epic Games Store exclusively.

Valve noted that "the decision [ed: of publisher Deep Silver] to remove the game is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long pre-sale period."

It isn't the first major release that has been pulled from Steam. Earlier this month publisher Ubisoft announced it had removed its shooter game Tom Clancy's The Division 2.

In our recent opinion feature we discussed the practices of Ubisoft and several other major publishers, concluding that the power struggle was not in the best interest of PC gamers.

Metro Exodus releases on February 15, 2019, for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Update: The game is now no longer available for purchase on Steam.