Well, Joel is basically magic at the internet and found some more information about the whole Rental DVD issue. There’s not much info but he managed to find a couple articles. Apparently Fox has decided to strip their rental DVDs of special features in an attempt to boost DVD sales.
Bah, this means, more than likely, all rental companies will be affected. The thing is, I can’t imagine that this will actually help boost sales. I know I would never buy a DVD just to see the special features. If a movie is good enough for me to buy it I’ll buy it whether it has great special features or not. On the other hand, DVDs are way too expensive to buy a crummy movie just for the special features. I have never pirated a DVD but this makes me almost want to. Not that pirating would get me any special features either. *sigh*
Hopefully other studios won’t decide to follow Fox’s lead. As far as I can tell they’re alone in this. Although Warner Bros. has invented their own way of trying to boost sales by not releasing DVDs to rent until 28 days after their original release date. Again, makes no sense to me. If I haven’t seen a movie there’s almost no chance of me buying it. I either need to see it in theaters or I rent it. I want to make sure I actually want to watch a movie more than once before I buy it.
Maybe I’m wrong, I haven’t studied this. Would you buy a DVD only to see the special features? My guess is no and if I’m right all Fox and Warner Bros. are doing is alienating customers. They’re at least alienating customers like me who care enough to do the research.