Due to the last minute Epic Game Store exclusivity deal that Deep Silver struck for Metro Exodus, there were still many Steam keys printed for the physical PC release of the game. However, those keys have got out in the wild in an as of now unknown way.
Deep Silver posted on the game’s official Steam forum warning about the illegal keys, which you can read here, where they detailed the issue and urged customers to contact stores for refunds, making it clear that the only officially licensed stores for the game were Humble Bundle and the Razor Store.
Said Deep Silver in their statement: “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.
“If you have been affected we strongly recommend you contact the seller who sold you the unlicensed key and demand a refund.”
Metro Exodus was at the center of a controversy when it was signed exclusively to the Epic Game Store launcher weeks before coming out, despite having an actively updated and open page on Steam. It is out now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and you can check out our review here.