Courtesy of Apple
Perhaps the title of this article is misleading a little. The real question is why are extended trailers for movies, known as the sneak peaks only available for US users of the iTunes service? The most recent example of this is how iTunes has just had added a 7 minute, 100MB long trailer added for the upcoming movie Get Smart starring Anne Hathaway.
The catch is while you can watch it if you have a US iTunes account if you are anywhere else in the world or don’t have a US credit card you’re out of luck. Considering it’s a promotional piece to make people want to watch the movie and the movie comes out all over the world and not just the US it makes no sense to have regional barriers in place stopping other people watching the video when it could lead to additional revenue.
There are other items such as free tracks from bands to promote their upcoming albums which are also banned for non-US users and then there are free episodes of television shows from the major US networks also included which are blocked to outside users. The question remains why would you add a regional block to an advert for something which is to be sold in all countries. Perhaps this shows just how paranoid about legal restrictions the film companies are now becoming and the entertainment industry as a whole.
What does this mean for you? If you’re in the US not a thing. If you’re outside the US a whole load of problems and steam coming from your ears after being short changed.
In a follow-on to our recent story regarding Metal Gear Solid
and GameTrailers.com MGS Retrospective video catchup series.
It is worth mentioning that the next of the weekly editions is
expected to be online anytime now with a direct link to be
found in the prior Stuffwelike story.
For those who are into music in a big, or even little way
you should have heard of Nine Inch Nails. Even if you have
not what you might like to know is the huge band has
released a new single from their next album online to
download for free.
The only catch is you have to put in an email address to
receive a time-limited download link for the MP3 file.
Doesn’t seem so bad so why not give it a try? The server
is even pretty fast for the download.
http://dl.nin.com/discipline/nin
No matter how big something is it can always be leaked onto the net.
It happened for Star Wars Episode 3 and now its happened with the PAL
and then NTSC versions of Grand Theft Auto 4.
In a press release sent out late Friday Valve has announced that a ton of high profile games from Rockstar are now available on the Steam download system. As a promotion all the games are discounted 10% during launch week so this is the time to brush up on your GTA skills before GTA4 is released. There is no word however on what upcoming Rockstar titles will be added to the system but we can only hope that a PC version of GTA4 will be made and added. All we can say is we hope you are not on a download limit!
The list and comments below are from the press release.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto II
Grand Theft Auto
Midnight Club II
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne
Manhunt
Wild Metal Country
”We were immediately excited by the opportunity to offer our PC catalog via Steam because it allows us to reach out to gamers around the world in exciting new ways,” said Rowan Hajaj, Head of Finance and Corporate Development of Rockstar Games. ”We are continually looking for ways to give back to our fans and this collaboration will give people a chance to easily revisit some of our greatest titles.”
“Rockstar Games brings some of most viscerally engaging games the industry has ever witnessed to Steam’s expansive library of titles,” says Jason Holtman, director of Steam business development. ”We’re delighted to provide a place where gamers across the globe can discover all the fine work Rockstar Games has produced.”
For more information about Rockstar Games on Steam, please visit www.steamgames.com/v/index.php?publisher=rockstar
