Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Divinity Original Sin on gamersgate?

Is there a reason that Divinity Original Sin isn't on gamersgate? I see all the other Divinity titles there (bought some of them there too), but I can't seem to find Original Sin there. Am I doing something wrong with my search, or is there another reason (like Larian Studios not having made a deal with gamersgate for this title, or something)?

I assume there just wasn't a deal made with them. If you want a non-Steam version, it would have to be from GOG or the Mac App Store (which is OSX only). The Steam version can be bought direct or through the Humble store, etc (see here).

Well...maybe they just forgot? ;-)

Anyway, is there anywhere one can buy (online) a physical copy of the game?

Preferably with the woman with belly button on the front cover (heard they had to censor that in some area's/countries).

You can still find physical releases of the game (which are all Steam) on Amazon.com, eBay, etc.

That's a bit strange. On GOG it says: "DRM-FREE. No activation or online connection required to play. "

One would presume the same would be possible with a physical copy as well, thus. Is there a specific reason why, if you buy it from GOG, it's possible to play it without hassle, and when one would buy it as a physical copy, one is obliged to go through Steam?

What about the enhanced edition? Can that be played without Steam?

Physical copies of games have to be ready some time before the release date, Larian was working on D:OS right up until launch, they didn't stop after the physical version went gold. The reason given for activation through Steam is so the game can be patched up to the current version immediately, and avoid the hassle of a buggy game.

D:OS:EE is going to GoG, so yes, the EE can be played without Steam.

Steam is not required to run D:OS. You could install D:OS through Steam, move the D:OS game folder elsewhere and uninstall Steam and D:OS would work fine.

@AidBand - There's a good video located here; http://gdcvault.com/play/1021934/Divinity-Original-Sin-Postmortem-Success (sfw), that describes why the physical copies required steam to install and such (it also describes a lot of other things too).

Basically, Larian didn't want reviewers to get their hands on a 'pre-released' version of the game (which needed the day 1 patch), but they needed to get their physical copies ready to ship, so they packed the physical copies with all of the data files but not the main executable, which is what steam will download when you activate the game via steam. That made sure that reviewers downloaded the day 1 patch before being able to review the game.

I don't think that Physical copies of D:OS:EE will suffer from the same clause though, but that's just my opinion.

I hope I explained that right.

There would also be more work involved in creating patches, maintaining sets of new and previous saves for compatibility testing, and QA, plus the required hosting, etc. That and the fact that the majority of people want Steam keys anyway, has led to Steam being used for a lot of PC retail releases (as mentioned in the GDC talk, retail makes up 5% of sales, and digital 95%).

That vid was quite interesting, thanks, Haleseen. I'm glad to see Larian being so open and honest about things. The most important thing is being interactive and positive with your fanbase and customers, especially for an indie. It also makes me a bit proud they managed to do that, being from the same city they are in.

As probably most of us, I've always preferred the RPG genre, and I remember way back playing Divinity for the first time, and I thought it an excellent game. And for it's time, it was. I never got quite into the next one, but maybe because I bought that one many, many years later, and vids had moved on by that time. (I actually didn't hear about it at the time; marketing must have been bad).

I also bought Dragon Knight Saga a year or so ago (I didn't buy Ego Draconis when it came out due to the bad reviews) and enjoyed it too. I'm currently playing dragon age (not of Larian, but also enjoyable, thusfar). But next one is going to be original sin, since I've heard so many good things about it, and the scores are high, and the reviews raving.

I would actually like a physical copy as a collectors' item, not really for playing (I just bought it at GOG for a relatively cheap price - I seldom give more than 30 euro's to any game, but that's a personal principle stance.) I think for the money I paid, it will be a bargain.

But still, I would pay far more for a collector's item with a physical copy and a nice box atc. What I *really* would like to buy, is a limited (like only 100 or 1000) special edition box where the woman on the front cover has the belly button. One sees that on their site, but I can't find it on any of the games/boxes they sell. I heard they had to do that because of pressure of some distributors, which, personally, I find a pity they caved in. But I also heard that afterwards, they reversed it in some countries. Is that true or not?

If not, I would suggest such a cover/front for a limited edition collectors' item box. I'll pay 200 euro's for it. ;-p

Does Larian look here on the forum some time? Or should I knock on their door? ;-)

The cover art was changed because it was not an accurate depiction of the game, just like every other aspect of the game was changed or influenced based on feedback. No distributors were involved that I know of, and there was only small website that said they didn't want to preview the game if it meant displaying the original artwork.

Larian does read the forum. If you have a day free next week, though, you can see if there are any EE playtesting slots open:

Wanted: Fearless Source Hunters near Ghent, Belgium

DARN! I wished I had known sooner, but well, it's not like I watch Larian *that* close to see if their is something going on there. But it sounds cool. Their studio must be, what, 30 minutes from my place on foot, or something. Would have been nice to go for it, but alas, as such things go (Murphy and all that), I'm on holiday abroad next week, for about a week. Well, maybe friday would work...

About the art-work: well, I heard it was outside pressure, more then anything else. Maybe the feminist-PC got the betterhand. But regardless, that cover is pretty cool.

I'll give it a shot and contact them. If it's not for this round,; there will be others, no doubt.

That's a bit strange... I contacted Larian about a week ago at the email-address on that site (of your link), but I haven't heard anything back.

I mean, I'm ok with a 'no, thanks', but one would expect *some* answer or response from Larian...

Ah well.

Did you check your spam folder, etc, if applicable?
I guess when the requests died off whoever was checking it stopped, and didn't set up an auto-response.

Just checked it, but I can't seem to find anything there of Larian neither.

Maybe they forgot to answer or to set an auto-reply, as you say. But then it would have gone wrong already more than a week ago, or something.

I can imagine they've got a lot of response, but on the other hand, I don't think you have THAT many who live so close nearby. It should be a bonus to be able to come often/fast, I would imagine, if not for now, then for later games.

I followed up with another mail, just because I thought maybe it went missing (could have gotten into their spam too, after all), but I've not gotten an answer on this latest one neither.

I'm not sure what to do now. I don't want to come over as too pushy. If they don't need me for testing, they don't need me. But without any sort of response, it's difficult to know if it's on purpose, or if something went wrong in the communication.

I mentioned this to someone who would know who was checking that email address, so hopefully it will at least be handled better the next time (I don't know if or when there will be another playtesting session for the EE).

Still nothing, also not of that person you spoke of (at least, I didn't get anything as of yet).

The correct email was playtesting@larian.com, right?

Ah well... I guess they had plenty enough and stopped responding. But it would have been nice to have gotten *some* response, even when negative, regardless. Well, can't be helped, I guess.

As you say; maybe next time.

Raze; ever heard any (more) news about that?

It's too late for the EE version now, but for the following game, mayhaps...

No, I haven't, and Gamersgate no longer carries any Divinity games.