Friday 24 December 2010

Pay Now to Play Later?

The BBC is very much British First, Everyone Else Second... If Not Later. Hardly surprising really, considering that the first B stands for British, they are paid for by British license fee payers and are about providing content to their British consumers.

Yet, the C is Corporation, which means they want to make money. Preferably, lots of money. And for that, they can't stick with just Britain, they want to consider anywhere that would be willing to give them money. In return for something, the ungrateful moneygivers, but for monies nonetheless.

So while they are dedicated to content for the British peoples, they also consider worldwide releases. Case in point: The Doctor Who Adventure games. The most recent episode/game "Shadows of the Vashta Nerada". Now, there have been posts about these games previously and no doubt someone will comment on this one, here I'm talking about being able to access it.

On their site, they want people to access it. There's even a wee introduction clip on the site. I guess. I can't tell. Despite the BBC wanting people to be interested, they don't want people to be that interested, and thus you can't see it if you aren't in Britain. (Or able to access YouTube.)

...On the other hand, the BBC are having the games available from Direct2Drive. And for just US$13, you can get the four episodes currently available. Only, you can't. You can only get the first three and pre-order the fourth. Although it's already released. Yes, you could say "the British get it before it's available", but... hey... it's not like they have to pay for it (over and above the license fee... which doesn't even work with the website as anyone on a UK ISP can access the site fully). So non-Britishers get to pay for it, and they get to wait.

Any wonder people turn to piracy?

[END]

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