What Is Happening With The Witcher 2 In Australia?

Roughly three weeks ago we reported that The Witcher 2 had been removed from Steam in Australia. Now, less than two weeks from its retail release, there is still no option to pre-order the game on Valve’s online service.

Details as to the reasons why are scarce. Once again we spoke to the local distributors of The Witcher 2, Namco Bandai, who are equally as stumped with regards to the situation.

Many were worried that the issue was with classification, given that The Witcher 2 deals with some pretty adult themes, but Namco Bandai has once again confirmed that this definitely is not the case. The game has gotten through classification unscathed. The Witcher 2 report on the classification website states that the version is modified – but as we know from previous experience ‘modified’ can simply be referring to additional content, such as downloadable content available on ‘Special Editions’.

Rest assured that the classification issues are not the reason the game is still unavailable on Steam.

The other possibility is price – it could be the case that The Witcher 2 will be made available on Steam closer to release at the recommended retail price, in order to protect retailers.

A third possibility is this: CD Projekt, the development team behind The Witcher, actually own Good Old Games, a rival digital distribution network. It could be that CD Projekt are restricting Steam from selling The Witcher 2 in order to promote their own service.

We’ve contacted Steam for comment on the situation, but haven’t had a reply at time of writing.

More news as we get it.

UPDATE: The Witcher 2 has been mildly modified for Australian release, you can find the details here.


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


24 responses to “What Is Happening With The Witcher 2 In Australia?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *