Paramount Pictures and Microsoft will be offering up two new Xbox 360 Elite bundles in the UK this holiday season for the DVD releases of the Star Trek reboot and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
UK retailer Gem Distribution has announced two separate movie-themed Xbox 360 Elite bundles set to hit shelves later this month, in order to celebrate the DVD releases of Paramount blockbusters Star Trek and Transformers, reports MCV UK.
Both bundles will contain fairly standard goodies: A themed console, an extra controller, a copy of the respective tie-in game (800 MS points to download the Star Trek XBLA game, that is) and a copy of the respective movie. Perhaps most interestingly of all, though, the movies will not be on DVD, but rather will be provided on custom-themed USB drives.
I’ve been thinking about this since I read the announcement, and I still can’t tell if it’s cool or not. There are a few reasons I can think of why Paramount would opt to release the films in digital media format rather than a hard disc (especially strange since the bundles are being sold to promote the release of said discs). True, it does save a bit on packaging, but that’s a minor expenditure in the grand scheme of things.
There are three major benefits I can see coming from this. For one, it’s probably easier to address regional format differences in digital form than it is with physical media. For another – depending on the size of the USB drive – it could also be a way to deliver HD content to 360 owners without having to rely on Microsoft’s streaming technology. Lastly, putting the movie on USB makes reselling it significantly more difficult.
Exact pricing and dates are as of yet unknown, but it makes sense to assume that the bundles’ release dates would coincide with that of their respective films on DVD: Star Trek on November 16th and Transformers on November 30th. A Gem Distribution spokesperson suggested that the bundles might not be available through normal retail channels, but instead would be limited to more “indie” retailers.
