I was wondering if there were any Brits out there who have anything to comment about the recent approach by companies like MVM and Anime Limited, regarding the pricing of their releases.
I'm really keen to get Eccentric Family, looks a cool series, but really, £40 for 13 eps? Then there's series like Kill la Kill - £45, with the occasional temporary 'sale' down a tenner or so. Seems like companies are now starting with hyper-expensive 'collector's editions' or 'Ultimate editions' at silly prices, with different packaging and extras that, frankly, I don't find all that enthralling. And they intimate they're going to release a basic version which never arrives, and if you complain, they blame 'licencing issues'. So who's at fault? Are they playing a waiting game to see if we buckle and just buy the expensive version? Then when there's a cheaper version, such as Patema Inverted it's released as a DVD-Blu-Ray combo box: why? Does anyone out there need both at the same time? I know I'm in the stone age with just an old DVD player, but really!
Maybe I've misread the market here, but to my mind, this all smacks of exploiting fans. Happy for everyone to tell me I'm missing the point, but to me, I'm most interested in the shows themselves. Now, if I were paying a bit more for a stripped-down product, so that more money can go to pay the poor impoverished animation staff, I'd be more amenable (though still would think twice about paying £40).
What do you think?
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