As expected, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a year-long Epic Store exclusive

Take-Two Interactive announced today that Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, the promising prehistoric survival game being developed by Patrice Désilets' Panache Digital Games studio, will be available exclusively through the Epic Games Store for a year. Ancestors is being published by Take-Two's Private Division label, as is The Outer Worlds, also a timed Epic exclusive (not counting the Microsoft Store).

Interestingly, while Take-Two has favored the Epic Store with recent releases—Borderlands 3 will also be exclusive—the studio said in an earnings call today that these timed exclusives will be "rare."

"In terms of supporting the Epic Games Store, we think more distribution is a good thing," Take-Two chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick said during today's earnings call. "And while it's rare that we'll do exclusives for any period of time—we continue to support Steam with our titles, our catalog—and these titles will be going to Steam relatively quickly after their initial availability on the Epic Games Store." 

The Borderlands 3 exclusivity period is different from Ancestors and The Outer Worlds. Borderlands 3 will come to "additional PC digital storefronts"—not necessarily Steam, but that's the assumption—in April 2020, in the neighborhood of seven months after its September 13 release on Epic.

Despite the Epic Store exclusivity, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey remains listed on Steam, and looks like it will stay there. The Steam page says it "will be available on Steam one year after launch on other exclusive digital PC platforms."

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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