[I do think there's a complicated discussion to be had around region-locking in particular, the fact that it's intended to enable lower prices in markets where people have less purchasing power without harming western-market sales is often ignored]
-
-
though all in all that's probably a problem that would be better solved with tariffs.
1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes -
The big picture reason for it is, as you say, maximizing profit through price discrimination The medium sized picture is that the way the studio sees it the value of the property is bundled into different sets of regional distribution rights
1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @Random832 and
They think of the US rights to a certain show as something they own that they can sell and if you make those rights worthless you've taken money out of their pocket Even if you'd argue you still paid for the DVD, it's the distributor who directly takes your money, not them
1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @Random832 and
It's not entirely a theoretical issue, like back in the 2000s there were attempts to launch official US dubs of various properties that failed because all of the potential fanbase already had the fansub and said that it was better
1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @Random832 and
Whether it actually was a net financial loss for the studio if you could actually get a ground level view of everything is unknowable, but to them it *looked* like a loss and made them that much less likely to do an official US release in the future
1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @Random832 and
Which to their parent company makes them look less popular and less profitable, etc
1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes -
I mean, frankly, what that arguably means is that distributors needed to get better at being first to market, because that's what the market wants... and that's what we have now more or less with simulcasts. the invisible hand has spoken
1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes -
Replying to @Random832 @arthur_affect and
you can't waste a year producing a product that all your customers already know exists
1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes -
Yeah in this particular case it's this feedback loop where piracy of anime was normalized as the way for American fans to engage with it because people weren't interested in official releases, which can only be overcome by continuing to pour effort into official releases
1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
Even when it looks like that money is being wasted But I think we are getting there, streaming services like Crunchyroll have made a big impact
-
-
the fact that crunchyroll was originally a pirate site is particularly amusing in the context of this discourse, which was sparked by a pirate streaming site being shut down.
0 replies 1 retweet 4 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.