Rebellion Developments, the team behind the newly-launched tactical stealth shooter Sniper Elite 5, has today spoken out about the game’s mysterious removal from the Epic Games Store. Sniper Elite 5 launched just yesterday and was meant to be available on the Epic Games Store, alongside its day one release availability on Xbox Game Pass, Steam, and on the Microsoft Store for Xbox consoles and PC and the PlayStation Store for PS5 and PS4.
However, the WW2-themed sniper game was mysteriously absent from the marketplace on the Epic Games Store yesterday after being pulled just before the game was due to be released. In addition to this, earlier in the week, some users on Twitter had reported refunds on their pre-orders at the Epic Games Store, despite not actually having requested them.
Now, as reported in VGC, Rebellion Developments has apologised for the issue with the Epic Games Store, explaining in a statement to VGC that the situation was taken out of their hands.
Due to circumstances beyond our control Sniper Elite 5 was not available on the Epic Store at launch but will release on that platform in the future. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Rebellion Developments, via VGC
What exactly this means, it’s hard to say. However, a statement on the game developer’s support website directs players who have pre-ordered to reach out to Epic Games to ensure they receive a refund on their purchase of Sniper Elite 5 if they haven’t already received one. It doesn’t look as though the game will be back on the Epic Games Store in the immediate future; it’s not on the front page of the store’s marketplace as of the time of writing, although it is still discoverable via search and listed as ‘coming soon’.
Sniper Elite 5 has only been out for a day but already it’s receiving some excellent critical and commercial feedback. The game is currently available to play on Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam.
