Could be. GOG insists on worldwide. The others (Steam, DotEmu, ...) not.

Of course you're right. I just meant that I had the (uninformed) idea that Steam would be a more international distributor, trying to get non-English speakers to use their service, too. In the end, it might be more of a publisher thing, but didn't you say yourself that the publishers have a great interest in getting their games on Steam, too? Steam is a successful business, surely Valve would not be forced to accept their offer if it would go against their principles? So I gave them credit because I thought multi-language support was part of those principles and their strategy to grow internationally, which Trilarion suggests is not necessarily the case.


Actually DotEmu's unique selling point compared to GOG is this multi-language support on most (curiously not all) titles. If GOG took the same care to provide multi-language support, there would be no reason to buy from DotEmu (they don't have a lot of different games to offer and the prices are often higher, at least for Europeans).

But it's probably not as easy as the original publisher owning all teh licenses. I'd guess that to include the localizations one would have to talk to the local publishers/distributors, too. (And this seems to be what DotEmu is more interested or better in than GOG; maybe it's reflected in the higher prices, too)

Steam got Fallout which was GOG's biggest series for its first two years or so... not a huge deal. GOG will continue to focus on old titles and Steam will continue to pay them a passing glance from time to time.

Huh, I never noticed. And it costs twice as much on Steam (for euro zone)

I like Steam but I don't think I'd call multi-language support something Steam principally stands behind :)

Then again I've never really paid attention to it since I prefer English language anyway. Don't think Steam would stamp it's feet until they got it though, doesn't seem that big of an issue (to me at least).

It's not an issue to you and neither to me, because we're perfectly able to understand English and we're used to read and play in English, too.

Still, it might be different in the Netherlands because as far as I know you're accustomed to watching movies in the original language and not many games etc. are localized in Dutch anyway, besides from my experience the Dutch populace speaks better English than the German one. Over here, it's a different matter because we're used to localizations. I'm pretty sure that the gamers who play games in English are more of a minority in Germany and I'd guess that the same is true at least for France, Italy and Spain, so there might actually be a market for selling localized games if Steam wants to expand further in Europe.

And that is another reason I ditched the dreaded retail for good. The ages it took to find the english language rip for Startopia and the time it took to download 300 mb on a 56k!

Argh! I hate synchronisation. Stupid Germans...

Sometimes I like synchronisation and localized content. But actually almost all CDs/DVDs I own (this time I do it) contain english and german language content.

I have the Baldurs Gate CDs with several languages here. :)

You might not like it but it's a fact. I'm pretty grateful for digital distribution, too, and specifically services like GOG. I don't get much enjoyment out of reading translations or playing games localized in German myself (with the exception of Sam & Max Hit The Road and Season One). But it's kind of arrogant to expect all people to be good with languages and digital distribution could grow further by respecting that they aren't. Especially since publishers are currently killing the few that's left of the German retail market by selling Steam keys on discs, forcing all these Stupid Germans to invade Steam. :P

I don't know if I would buy it again on steam. But it's good to see it on another distribution platform.

Looks like the whole collection is coming to Steam.

Steam has a number of titles GOG has, and a number of titles GOG should have (and probably will one day) like X-Com, or the id catalog.

I like GOG so I'll buy it here first (or I did already), others will do the same, others won't. Some view GOG as nothing more than another store, some view it as a bit more then that. (And some can get really nuts about it, just like people can get really nuts about Steam)

Valve will (probably) never try to actually seek out the truly old titles and sell them though. They just put up what they are given.

Wont be buying. Like the GOG versions.No Steam DRM /using offline bs :)

I will be, in due time, when it's on sale ^^

I do prefer to play games in English, but I will play them in German if I have to. The Baldur's Gate CDs were an interesting case though. I have the English original bigbox version and the German DVD rerelease with ToSC. The DVD is a standard EFIGS disc but ToSC is only in German. So basically, while I have the English version flashing in front of my face of Baldur's Gate, I can only play Sword Coast if I install it in German. Epic fail.

But never mind. I bought the GOG version for that specific reason. The German version of BG is truly dreadful (I do remember them actually spontaneously changing voice actors in the middle of the prologue narrative for some odd reason).

Anyway, good news for the Steamites, just a shame they're getting it last, seeing as pretty much every other platform has had its turn with the game.