The Steam client is a great video-gaming platform. It allows users to buy and download games, connect with friends and share screenshots from their gaming experiences. The website is available in 24 languages, and it even has a community-driven translation project.
However, unlike the website, the Windows client has some issues with language versus location.
Steal install screenshot
The choice of Chinese Simplified versus Chinese Traditional is interesting: Simplified is the norm in mainland China, yet Traditional is mostly used in Taiwain (but also Chinese ethnic groups outside of mainland China).
But the other flag choices are inconsistent: the United States flag is used for English. Understandable perhaps as Steam are a US-based company, but a look at the Steam client stats server reveals Steam has heavy usage in other English-speaking countries such as Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa.
While there is no data on Brazilian users versus Portuguese, by sheer population numbers one would expect Brazil to have more users than those in Portugal: yet the Portuguese flag is used for Portuguese. Again, this is inconsistent with the choice of the US flag for English.
As for Spanish, how many users are in Spain compared to Argentina, Chile and Mexico or other Spanish-speaking countries?
Are Steam really asking what country the user is in, or what language they prefer? It appears to be a confused mix between the two.
Another problem with this install process is the lack of localised names — forcing users into selecting a flag to for their language (whilst the language is labelled in the English-name for that language).
The Steam website handles translations brilliantly: each language is localised and also in English for disambiguation. And no flags.
However, their installer client needs some more thought.