Released Dates

[Lex_Mortis]

Software, Music, Movies, etc etc everything has a release date. But why is Europa 'lagging' with US or Japan?

They always release stuff later on in Europa, but why?

Do the companies think we dont wanna see new movies? or buy new games? That we are somekind of second hand buyer, we dont count??

LOTR was released allover the world at once, and other movies/games should take an example of that.

And if there reason is somekind of salestactic, they probably got it all wrong, because someone can rip a dvd put it on kazaa and EU ppl will download it and see it before its even in the cinema here!

The only thing they arent lagging about is with that cd protection..

Those were my 2 cents.. I had to get it out

 

[Cutter]

"Release Dates" are simply a tactic to prolong high sales figures, and thus profits. If you consider that much of the entertainment media released today is of average quality at best, then you will see that after initial high sales (and hence profits) when the latest "must have/see/listen" item is first released, sales figures and hence profits tend to drop off quite noticeably.

By staggering release dates across the globe, you can keep the sales figures higher for longer. Sure, some people will get copies off war3z ftp sites, or download from friends or others on kazaa etc. But most people are still not on broadband, and so are not prepared to wait while a multi hundred MB movie downloads over 56K from someone who has the average cable upload of 15KB/sec and whose upload bandwidth is probably also being raped by people leeching mp3s. To say nothing of the 2 hour cutoff limits most 56K accounts have, or thing like the file host going off-line.

Most people don't know the war3z/ftp sites where they can download the content from, or don't know people who could tell them, or don't know that they can get it easily from IRC (because they see IRC as fairly user-unfriendly compared to graphical chat clients like MSN/ICQ).

A lot of movies on kazaa etc also tend to be of low quality and play in small windows, often with the sound out of sync. And at the end of the day, a large number of people will simply wish to avoid this hassle and buy the movie/CD/DVD when it is officially released.

Staggered release dates also make it easier to fix prices according to region. Thus, in the USA, with its huge domestic market and argumentative customers who are ready to complain about high prices, all the good stuff is released cheaply. The large domestic market and unified distribution network also helps to make goods cheaper in the USA. Ditto in Japan, where due to over a decade of economic recession, prices have to be kept low to try and stimulate consumer interest in the hopes of them spending their way out of recession.

Europe & Britain present a potentially large, but not homogenous market. This fragmented market means that the same product can be cheap in some EU countries, and more expensive in others. The UK's Island nature, and thus import & shipping costs are often cited as the reason why goods are more expensive in the UK. In fact, I rather suspect it is simply because the retailers and wholesalers know that the UK consumers are simply used to being ripped off, and never complain enough about it.

 

[Gen76]

Or


Its actually a cleverplan set forth by the US gov. to promote US economic dominance through political means caused by "piracy" which is realy nohting more than a clever ploy.Via high prices on media products and l8 release dates they encourage ppl to steal and propegate this process.

 

[Gen76]

i jest ofcourse

 

[Martz]

Indeed.

To be fair, over Christmas (the marketers favourite time of year for blagging people out of money) I spent quite a few quid on DVDs. For the money, I am quite happy to pay for original high quality media for films I really enjoy watching. With a DVD you get a few extra features, deleted scenes, and the video will not fade over time. Most of the DVD titles I bought were for £10, which I think is quite reasonable. £20 for the newest releases is a bit expensive IMO, and then you look at the cost of CDA albums, £15 - and wonder what all the fuss is about.. CDA gives you the stereo audio track.. (_with new (improved?) added DMCA flavouring for your personal, yet restrictive, anti-piracy pleasure_™) - whilst DVD gives you 5.1 channels of rich engineered soundtracks, languages etc, plus bonus footage and audio. Huh? Even in basic comparission CDA isn't worth a wank, but we all know that.

I like Gens statement about the regions, and I have never though about the US economy getting more out of this that the rest of the world, whatever your opinion on it, this is obviously a business plan which is working, and has been for quite some time. However, the US is about to choke itself from many angles, Mobile Phone Tehnology for 1 is another topic which is an example of how stiffling technology has great short-term business consiquences.

 

[Gen76]

lol Us cell phones ie CAN U HEAR ME NOW??? HOOW ABOUT NOOW????!