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Poor Pricing on Downloadable Content: A Black Friday Rant

November 28, 2008 - -

Two nights ago, just before watching 24: Redemption, I was surfing the PSN store. I noticed that the very show I was about to watch was for sale on the Playstation store for $19.99. Twenty bucks??? That's effing ridiculous. It's a television show! I've seen most TV show episodes for sale on places like iTunes and Amazon unbox for about two bucks!

I understand that movies sell for twenty bucks or more, and this is in fact a two-hour television show, but it's not a movie, no matter how much the network may try to bill it as such. It's a TV show that I could have seen for free if I'd been watching the night it was on. As I understand it, the reason that movies are priced just over $20 is firstly because they're not ad-supported like TV is, and secondly because of the much higher production costs. Why on earth should I pay movie prices for a TV show? When I actually purchase a movie on DVD, it's because I plan on watching it more than once. With a TV show, I won't be doing that.

I think that purveyors of DLC need to get their heads out of their asses.

Comments on Poor Pricing on Downloadable Content: A Black Friday Rant
 
Comment Fri, November 28 - 9:53 PM by pmd
I don't have access to the PSN store, but I checked this out on iTunes. They're charging $19.99 as well. Apparently there are 17 minutes of bonus footage that weren't aired. Personally, I think it should have been an extra 24 minutes... But that's just me.

I still think your argument is valid. Unless people think that the extra 17 minutes is valuable, they're not going to fork over the money. I suspect they'll figure out some way to watch the extra 17 minutes.
 
Comment Sat, November 29 - 10:21 AM by Greg
The extra 17 minutes isn't something they did especially for the wonderful customers. It's the footage they cut to make the time they needed for air. It's essentially what they considered the worst and least essential 17 minutes of the show. No thanks.
 
Comment Sat, November 29 - 7:45 PM by Magus2
Still free on Fox.com. $10 via Amazon. The world isn't so bad. :)