Since you have a degree in linguistics, you will know the sorry state of our compatriots when it comes to speaking foreign languages, let alone a full RPG in english!
The italian localization would be aimed at those people, who will not play/buy the game otherwise, I don't think it's a matter of conquering new markets. On the fact that french/german/spanish are way more appealing commercially, we all agree, but that's not the point.
Also, at its present state, I think that D:OS2 is far from being a niche title, and Larian is no longer an indie, unknown developer. I'm not saying they are on AAA levels, but for sure Larian is reaching a similar status, both in respect from the playerbase and publicity from the magazines. Consider all the awards won by the first chapter, the overwhelming amount of advertisement, the positive reviews, the sale figures, and especially the incredible kickstarter campaign for this game.
Could one really compare all this to titles like PS:Torment or Arcanum? Not at all, in my opinion, because despite being now revered as "masterpieces", "legends" etc., they actually bombed at release, and went by almost unnoticed, with poor reviews and pathetic sale figures.
Diablo and especially Baldur's Gate are in my eyes way more fitting comparisons, because we are talking about well received games made by developers with good names but not AAA for sure back then. Blizzard North was not the current Blizzard, and Bioware pre-BG was not EA, so to speak. Still, they included our market, even with questionable tranlations, but at least they didn't cut us out!
Moreover, if you want a contemporary comparison, I mentioned Pillars of Eternity by Obsidian. That (amazing) game also came from a kickstarter campaign, and the financial situation of Obsidian was much worse than Larian's, still they included the official italian localization. Why should Larian, in its present form, exclude us? I don't find a reasonable answer, especially considering what happened with the italian patch of the first title, but I don't want to talk out of my ***, so it would be cool to hear official Larian words on this matter.
