Then we are fortunate that most games nowadays from retail stores, are Steam games. :)
Thank you Steam.
I understand why they do this in Russia but I don't understand trying to force everyone who lives in Germany to play their games in Deutsch. It is not like the games here are cheap like in Russia. :P

The localisation situation can be a bit of a legal nightmare. I know, because I've had a hand in the localisation of DTP products before, although I had nothing to do with Divinity. It may happen that the localisation for a specific game is copyright to a certain localisation studio, but the game itself is copyright of another.

While I've not seen the specific conditions surrounding Divinity 2's localisation, it is possible that the German loca was only licensed for distribution in German-speaking countries and a special version was therefore created for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It wouldn't be the first time.

darn! but I am not in Germany or Austria or Switzerland. Shouldn't steam let me activate the regular one :( Also, technically, by activating that product outside of thee countries wouldn't I (and by direct association Steam for letting me do so) be in violation of that local studio's copyright or whatever?

No, because the point of sale was still Germany. It's just like if I bought a boxed game and posted it to you in the US as a gift.

I've been hearing reports that Valve will fix the issue for you if you ask nicely, but I've also heard that their response has been known to be basically "bad luck".

:S care to explain that last bit?

Sorry to derail the thread a little, but this is related to a DTP game. Do you know if this was the reason why Drakensang: River of time was not released in some parts of Europe (like Sweden)? Also, when I tried to import the game, I was often told that they could not ship the game to my region (which I've never actually encountered with games before), so was there some form of export restrictions on that game (and is that not illegal in EU)?

Basically Valve's position is that all trades done through Steam Trading are final. They've been known to exercise goodwill in some cases and allow the trade to be reversed, but I think those cases were all clear-cut scams. In your case, the person you traded with in all likelihood probably didn't know. I think it's largely dependent on the support person you're dealing with.

Ask and find out. You might be pleasantly surprised.
I honestly couldn't say, but banning exports of games within the European common market (certain restrictions pertaining to imports into Germany notwithstanding) is illegal. If you tried to export from the US, then yeah, there will probably be a legitimate reason why they didn't want to sell, quite possibly simply to do with customs duty. If you were ordering from the UK, there is no reasonable explanation.

All my attempts to get the game were through Amazon.co.uk. I quite often get that with books (can't ship to your region), which I find a bit odd as well, but never had to deal with that for games before Drakensang: River of time. I was able to track down a copy after a while, but I was seriously considering piracy when I got my 4th "won't ship to your region" message. If they don't want my money...

The entire release of that game seem to have been handled rather poorly though. Very few copies seem to have been printed, and those quickly ran out (though there are more in stock now). They also released the expansion for the game in regions that never had the core game released (like Sweden).

its available in the US steam store and no where else AFAIK (maybe also Asian market). try to find someone from that region and make a trade (assuming you use steam). I got one once in a trade then lost it in a scam :( A friend is going to get me another one though (I hope) soon.

Trying to get Amazon to deliver internationally will be your problem then. They have rather complicated and obtuse rules about the sale of media abroad. There's some stuff they'll deliver to Europe without a hitch, and then there's other stuff they won't. I personally don't bother with Amazon UK because I don't have a credit card, but I've heard all kinds of nightmare stories. Never had any probs with Amazon Germany though.

Could try eBay. Takes a bit of sifting through all the shit on there, but there are a fair few reliable power sellers who will stock it.

I luckily found a legal copy in the end, so I never had to turn to the dark side, but I was darn close. It currently resides in my game shelf, right next to the original game.

I've never had any problems with ordering games or movies through amazon.co.uk though. They, and their affiliated stores, usually ship to Sweden, and all I have to deal with is a slightly too high postage (that is why I prefer play.com). Heck, ordering things from amazon.com has not posed a problem for me either (though I've only ever ordered one game from the states, most of the stuff that I have ordered from there have been pen & paper roleplaying games, which are prohibitively expensive here in Sweden).

What about Phileann's Secret? Its the expansion to Drakensang (or some sort of DLC, not sure)

That is the expansion for River of time, and it is actually sold here. It is not compatible with my UK version though... But then again, it is also known to be considerably worse than the core game, so I'm not too worried about it.

interesting... steam says it is the expansion to the first game :D

Can you share some of the nightmare stories you heard about amazon.co.uk? I'm always thinking about ordering stuff from them and it would suck if my experience with them also becomes a nightmare story. :) And do you have to use Paypal to purchase stuff from Ebay?