Colonization unavailable to Australian Steam users?

[confused australian gamer]

Hi 2K,

I tried to purchase Civ. 4: Colonization via Steam this evening, but it seems that it is not available to Australian customers.

I was wondering if 2K has plans to make Colonization available to Australian Steam users at some point in the future (I assume this is 2K games' decision and I'm not barking up the wrong tree).

I don't entirely understand the rationale behind refusing paying customers - are there perhaps existing (digital or retail) distribution arrangements for Australia that would conflict with the availability of certain 2K games via Steam?

Any feedback would be most appreciated (and apologies if this query has already been answered elsewhere).

[Bantams]

have you tried direct to drive at gamespy.com?

[confused australian gamer]

hi bantams,

thanks for the suggestion - i gave it a quick google, but Piemax2 over at the quartertothree forums says that Direct 2 Drive has colonization locked down with region restrictions, making it only available to north american and european customers...

Gamersgate has it listed for download, but I couldn't find any information regarding region restriction anywhere, so that's a bit of an unknown quantity. I'm hesitant to try some of these random game download services since it's a gamble on how many years their download/authentication servers will stay up for (I guess there's the same gamble for steam, but valve would seem to be doing quite well for themselves).

[Etherdeath]

Gamersgate.com has it too, and I think they are a pretty good download type site. They carry games from a lot of indepdent shops. Also, they bundled it with Europa Universalis III, but maybe that was pre-order only.

[Nomad_87]

Still no response from a Mod / 2K about Aussie Steam Release?