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mrtnptrs's avatar
mrtnptrs
Seasoned Ace
2 months ago

Populous: The Beginning Steam Store page/purchase not available in Europe

Per SteamDB (https://steamdb.info/app/2616430/) it can be seen that Populous: The Beginning isn't available in Europe through Steam. Trying to visit its Steam Store page (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2616430/) from here in the Netherlands results in the error "An error was encountered while processing your request: This item is currently unavailable in your region", which confirms my findings. Even though the game can be purchased in Europe just fine through its separate package page (how I also successfully acquired it), see https://steamdb.info/app/2616430/subs/ which leads to https://steamdb.info/sub/938657/ which leads you to https://store.steampowered.com/sub/938657/

I've checked this on many laptops, computers, phones, Wi-Fi and 5G-connections. This is no network-specific issue. Also no usage of any VPN or Anti-virus software. No provider is blocking anything. This is thus no system-specific issue, as is confirmed by SteamDB itself. This really seems to be an issue with how EA setup its Steam Store page for this specific game.

This really feels like an accidental oversight as the game can be found and bought perfectly fine here in the Netherlands from the EA App. So, if it wasn't available in Europe on Steam due to some rights issue or something, then why would it be available on EA App anyways in Europe. So, this really feels like an accidental oversight.

Posting this here with the hope that someone at EA looks into this and maybe even fixes this issue so more people can enjoy this classic.

pc

2 Replies

  • mrtnptrs's avatar
    mrtnptrs
    Seasoned Ace
    1 day ago

    Sorry for the later reply (forgot to respond), but this isn't the responsibility of Valve itself. EA publishing management can regulate themselves within the developer/publisher Steam backend what games are available in which countries. If I ask Steam support, they will most certainly tell me to contact EA support as the responsible party.

    Are you perhaps able to move this up to the chain of command for the people within EA that are responsible for the Steam Store listings? EA_cuervo​ This is a systematic issue that is not specific to me. Could be that this is caused by some quirk within the Steam backend of Valve itself, but wouldn't it then be best for EA personnel to contact Valve to solve this situation together?

    Because now, many EA classics have been released all over the world, but this game is mistakenly not having its store page available in Europe. This is a huge shame as people in Europe will likely not even notice now that the game is available. For EA this will result in less sales.

  • EA_cuervo's avatar
    EA_cuervo
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    2 months ago

    Hi there, thanks for taking the time to investigate this and share all the details.

    Since the issue is specifically with the Steam Store page and regional availability there, we're not able to make changes to Steam's storefront from our side. I’d recommend reporting this directly to Steam Support so they can review the store listing and regional availability.

    We appreciate you flagging it.

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