Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray Problem

[TrekToday]

For fans eagerly awaiting the Star Trek into Darkness Blu-ray release, a lack of bonus content might make them unhappy. It’s not that there is a lack of extras, but that getting all of the extras would require many different purchases of the same product from different retailers. The Digital Bits’ Bill Hunt laid out [...]

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[CorporalCaptain]

From the OP article:

It seems that this strategy is not a very good way to treat fans and may well alienate them.

Word.

Of course, in order to demonstrate alienation, it is necessary for fans to boycott the Blu-ray in sufficient numbers. If they don't, if consumers just say, "Oh, I'll get the Blu-ray anyway, but skip the bonuses," then the bonus releases would just be gravy for the studio. From Paramount's perspective, they'd be right in marketing it this way, because not only would they not lose a penny on the regular sales, but they'd have the icing of the bonus sales.

 

[geneo]

Very sad. Paramount should have created the correct blu ray with everything on it and sold it itself, forget about all that extra stuff put on different store's versions. Another unwise Paramount move.

If enough people protest maybe Paramount will do another release with everything on it.

 

[Set Harth]

You know, I saw this headline and thought it was something to do with the video mastering, the discs being defective, or some such.

But it's just more complaining about the extras.

 

[GNDN]

Amazon pre-order -- CANCELLED

 

[Sparky]

Very stupid move by Paramount. All is does is confuse people and piss them off. I wouldn't care if they had a vanilla release and a special edition with *all* of the bonus content included. I would be more than willing to shell out a few extra bucks for the deluxe edition. In this situation it's simply not possible to own all of the extra content without purchasing 5 or 6 different copies of the movie in various formats. Paramount has created a situation where I am going to have no moral qualms about hitting up file sharing sites to grab the bonus content.

 

[Sparky]

You know, I saw this headline and thought it was something to do with the video mastering, the discs being defective, or some such.

But it's just more complaining about the extras.

I don't see it as complaining. I see it as a very valid concern with how Paramount is marketing and selling this movie. The one that really bothers me is the commentary. I love commentaries, but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay 25 dollars for a crappy iTunes quality copy of the movie just to get an audio commentary. I'll rip the movie to my hard drive, download the commentary and Mux it in. Then I can watch the movie with commentary in full BD quality on my TV. I'll buy the Blu-Ray, but it looks like I'm going to pirate the extras left off the disc.

 

[NuFan]

I don't think I have ever watched the bonus features in any movie. I do listen to the commentary on some of them, but only once.

 

[LeadHead]

The bummer for me is the lack of commentary on the blu-ray. I'd enjoy that. The whole retailer exclusive trend is getting more and more silly and ridiculous. Hope Paramount reigns it in.

They're not going to make anything on those exclusives, because they're now much more likely to make their way to YouTube.

 

[Mage]

Do I care? Not really, it's about the movie for me, extra's are just that.
But do I understand the frustration of people that DO care about such things a lot? Actually, yes I do. Paramount is really being a dick about this.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I actually see this as the way things will be done in general. You're going to see more and more things released by the various studios with bonus material being as individual retailer exclusives.

Forget double-dipping--they want triple- and quadruple-dipping from people that just got to have it all.

 

[JarodRussell]

Greed. They do it with games as well. Want all the content? Buy three editions!
And the sheep are stupid enough to do it.

 

[Sparky]

They had better prepare for pirating. Pirating has a couple advantages, it's free and easy. How do you compete against free and easy? By offering content that is better quality than free and easy can provide. The Blu-Ray should be the gold standard. Instead we get broken up shit that will be pirated.

 

[trekker670]

Even with pirating though, it's kind of rare to find the movie packaged with the special features, typically you just get the movie itself. Hopefully this will be an exception though.

 

[bbailey861]

I just cancelled my Amazon Special Edition preorder. It's about the only way I can voice my displeasure.

 

[feek61]

This just sucks! Agree with the previous poster in that this encourages pirating. What fool is going to buy every release of this to get the special features. Seems like the marketing department has found a way alienate the consumers even more.

 

[JWPlatt]

I just cancelled my Amazon Special Edition preorder. It's about the only way I can voice my displeasure.

You can use your active voice to make a comment on the Amazon page for the Blu-ray to alert others who would also be disappointed. It's more difficult to detect the reasons for the passive behavior of simply canceling an order. And no one but Amazon sees the cancellation.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

While I agree it's scummy for Paramount to do this, it is something that happens with movies and music when released through retailers. One will have a book, another will have a few extra songs not available anywhere else, etc.

I'm keeping my preorder with Best Buy, because I want the movie itself. I've maybe only really looked at special features once on a movie and that's about it. Some I'll look at a few times if it's a documentary or something, but making of stuff I'll only look through once and not watch them again after that.

 

[bbailey861]

I just cancelled my Amazon Special Edition preorder. It's about the only way I can voice my displeasure.

You can use your active voice to make a comment on the Amazon page for the Blu-ray to alert others who would also be disappointed. It's more difficult to detect the reasons for the passive behavior of simply canceling an order. And no one but Amazon sees the cancellation.

Very good point. I have done just that and put a comment on Amazon.com....and I just got an email stating that it just went 'live'. Thanks for kicking me in the ass.

While I agree it's scummy for Paramount to do this, it is something that happens with movies and music when released through retailers. One will have a book, another will have a few extra songs not available anywhere else, etc.

I'm keeping my preorder with Best Buy, because I want the movie itself. I've maybe only really looked at special features once on a movie and that's about it. Some I'll look at a few times if it's a documentary or something, but making of stuff I'll only look through once and not watch them again after that.

Yes, it's something retailers do - but it should be limited to tangible things. Amazon did the phaser, WalMart is doing the ship and those are all good things. The video special features, however, should be put on all the discs.

 

[austen_pierce]

I just cancelled my Amazon Special Edition preorder. It's about the only way I can voice my displeasure.

You can use your active voice to make a comment on the Amazon page for the Blu-ray to alert others who would also be disappointed. It's more difficult to detect the reasons for the passive behavior of simply canceling an order. And no one but Amazon sees the cancellation.

THIS. Both!

Yes, leave Amazon comments.

I also think enough cancellations might cause Amazon to take notice. If Amazon then complains to Paramount, we might see changes in Paramount's marketing practices. Getting enough cancellations will be the challenge.

Me, I'd already known that a Target edition will have better extras, so I'm holding out for that.

UPDATE: just popped over to Amazon, and the bad reviews are piling up, citing this very problem. Keep it up. Whether we will reach critical mass remains to be seen.