If you are thinking about pre-purchasing L4D2, you should think twice, as you might be yet another victim of Valve’s regional pricing scam.

Previously only differing the price between US Dollar, Euro and British Pound, they now topped it by even discriminating between the European countries.

So we not only have the well known unfair price difference between Dollar, Euro and Pound:

US L4D2 Pre-Purchase: $44.99

EU L4D2 Pre-Purchase: 44,99€

UK L4D2 Pre-Purchase: £26.99

but also differences between european contries:

Germany, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and a lot of others pay the high, unfair price of 44,99€ (L4D2)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/?cc=de (or /?cc= fr, nl, dk, fi, se..)

while countries like: Poland, Norway, Italy, Spain, Lithuania and a few other – for incomprehensible reasons -, pay a much cheaper price of 34,19€, which is only slightly more than the UK price in Euro!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/?cc=pl

Thats a price difference of 10€ or even 20€ less when buying a bundle of four L4D2 copies.

Workarounds:

1.) Gifting cheap games to friends in an expensive, foreign region is thankfully still possible, eventhough it probably won’t be for long, judging from recent developements.

So have a good foreign friend who lives in a cheap priced region gift you L4D2, after sending him the money via PayPal or likewise.

2.) If you can live without the “exclusive baseball bat” weapon that comes with Steam Pre-Purchases: Don’t support the Steam Regime at all and Pre-Order L4D2 on Amazon.co.uk for the cheapest of all prices: £26.99 (29,26€)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Arts-Left-Dead-DVD/dp/B002BSH9J4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1254503223&sr=8-2

German users should be aware that L4D2, like 1, will be censored again, when buying from their region.

Buy the game at Amazon.co.uk or have a foreign friend gift it to you, for uncensored Zombie Slaughter.