Well, it's another complaint-thread about Steam as a DRM.

I recently bought a game called Cursed Crusade through Gamesplanet. As a DRM it uses Steam, and so rather than getting the game, I just got a serial for the use in Steam.

All well's so far, except... Steam won't accept the Serial, claiming the product is not available for purchase in my country (despite the fact they usually screw us Israelis up and stick us with the Brits, and the Brits have got it available).

Trying to contact Steam Support has been in vain. All I get are generic automated "return to your reseller for a refund" responses, also informing me they are not changing the racist region-lock policy.

Of course there is no reason why Gamesplanet would refund me now that they have given me the serial. They can't resell it afterall.

And so another fine example of modern world services... bumped between one profit-driven company and another, each taking the money but throwing the responsiblity to the other.

It looks like this game has different regional publishers...that could be part of the problem. Potentially, one publisher has the rights to sell in Israel, and a completely different publisher has the sales rights in the UK (where Gamesplanet seems to be located). So if your ip isn't showing as from the region where you bought it...bam.

It's definitely crappy, it's always confusing when games get published by 17 different companies...but I hardly see how it's racist.

Personally, I'd blame the publisher agreements.

That's not the case here.

Israel is always thrown together with the UK.

And we are constantly hurt by this on Steam. Getting everything late, despite having non of the silly UK game laws (such as that games should be released on Friday).

The game is available in the UK, but not yet in the U.S. And Steam just decided all on their own not to allow me to play the game.

The publishers didn't have a restriction against Israel.

I think I might contact the publishers themselves and ask them to resolve this for me.

It's definitely crappy, it's always confusing when games get published by 17 different companies...but I hardly see how it's racist.

Personally, I'd blame the publisher agreements.