Ubisoft Still Hates Most Of The World
You lucky North Americans - you've got a bunch more Ubisoft games on Steam, including the ever-lovely Beyond Good & Evil.
Due to The Reason - a secret no publisher can divulge - the games are only appearing for US users of Valve's online distro. They are: Heroes of Might & Magic V, Pacific Fighters, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of World War II, Blazing Angels II: Secret Missions of World War II, Cold Fear, Brothers In Arms: The Road To Hill 30, Beyond Good & Evil, Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, and Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition.
Last time Ubi and Atari did this, we emailed around to try and find out why. Here are our world exclusive responses:
Ubisoft told us on the 2nd of April.
"Currently waiting on a response on this from our corporate division, so I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything."
Atari meanwhile explained,
"It's difficult as there's just nothing to discuss at this point. As soon as I have some more information I will let you know"
With this information under our arms, we approached Valve's Doug Lombardi to hear what Valve has to say.
"It's their call. We offer worldwide coverage, and we're happy to offer the products to as many customers as the publisher/developer desires."
So there you go. The next time someone asks you why publishers limit their sales to a fraction of the population of the world, on games you can't buy in shops any more, just point them this way.