Are You Wondering If Telltale Games’ The Expanse Is Coming to Steam?
Telltale Games has long captivated The Walking Dead’s fan base with interactive narrative adventures set in Robert Kirkman’s post-apocalyptic world, but ever since has sought new content suitable to their story-telling talents. Through series such as Game of Thrones and Guardians of the Galaxy, Telltale explored original tales in established universes; now with The Expanse: A Telltale Series they appear poised to tackle Amazon’s six season science-fiction show while potentially offering it through Steam?
Well, The Expanse won’t feature quite the same team from prior Telltale titles since its original developer has disbanded, but what we’ve seen of The Expanse so far shows promise for an emotional story experience following series lead Camina Drummer (voiced again by Cara Gee) as she explores space looking for treasure buried deep within.
Fans of The Expanse or Telltale Games have several platforms at their disposal to enjoy Drummer’s latest adventure – but is Steam one?
While The Expanse will release on all current- and previous-gen consoles except Nintendo Switch (save for PC players who prefer using Steam), Telltale Games opted for an exclusivity deal with Epic Games Store instead of offering it via Steam.
On July 27th 2023, The Expanse will make its first episode available exclusively through Epic Games Store and four additional chapters will follow every two weeks thereafter.
Could The Expanse come to Steam? It seems likely, given that its publisher, Epic Games, doesn’t control it and therefore it likely qualifies as timed exclusive status. Most timed exclusives appear on other PC platforms roughly one or two years post launch on EGS; so July 2024 can provide us with an indication of when you might see The Expanse appear there too.
Not much is known about The Expanse: A Telltale Game’s plot beyond Drummer returning. Although Season 4 left plenty of unexplored territory for someone to fill in with more story expansion, Telltale decided upon an intriguing prequel following Drummer, who did not join the main cast until Season 4. Without going too much into spoiler territory here, being a prequel allows potential for long-lost characters to return as well.
Amazon’s TV show, acquired from SyFy after it was cancelled after Season 3, takes place in an expanded Solar System that has become colonized, but remains locked in cold war with itself. A group of unwitting protagonists stumble onto an underground conspiracy theory which threatens this war’s fragile balance – though due to Telltale game featuring Drummer from Season 2 it seems likely it won’t go too deep backward in time either!
Telltale had plenty of material from James S.A. Corey’s novels for The Expanse to draw upon when creating its story arc; whether or not any inspiration came from them remains to be seen.
Telltale Games has joined forces with Deck Nine Studios – known for creating Before the Storm and True Colors in Life is Strange and its Remastered Collection – in creating The Expanse, marking LCG Entertainment’s acquisition of Telltale Games as evidenced by this second title being released since LCG took control – following Batman: Shadows Edition which featured both Batman A Telltale Series rerelease and Enemy Within in one package.
