Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 4K Steelbook (HMV Exclusive) (LE) (UK)

[rwc]

Hopefully there’ll be an Amazon or Zavvi 3D Steelbook. Annoyed that HMV get exclusivity on these titles and don’t make the most of it. Unlike Venom (which they also chose to only do a 4K Steelbook for), the 3D edition of Fantastic Beasts 2 is getting a wide UK release so no excuse in this case really.

Amazon Germany have an exclusive 3D Steelbook (their 4K Steelbook is non-exclusive), while Amazon France have a 4K + 3D Steelbook (Warner Bros France continue to pioneer this model).
Problem is the non-English steels will almost definitely have foreign text/titles imprinted.

[sherrifflobo]

My issue is there wasn’t a uk steel 4k of the first one and don’t like having mixed collections

[Voltaire53]

Originally Posted by rwc

Hopefully there’ll be an Amazon or Zavvi 3D Steelbook. Annoyed that HMV get exclusivity on these titles and don’t make the most of it.

Yes, I wish HMV would include the 3D too but, to be fair, when exclusivity is given to Amazon UK or (especially) Zavvi they never put the 3D in as well; HMV are the only steelbook exclusive people who do *sometimes* put in the 3D as well in the UK; sadly in this case (and as TVs have all dropped 3D non-inclusion will only become more prevalent with time) it's just the 4K... even more annoyingly, at the same price as if they *had* included the 3D!

[rwc]

Originally Posted by Voltaire53

Yes, I wish HMV would include the 3D too but, to be fair, when exclusivity is given to Amazon UK or (especially) Zavvi they never put the 3D in as well; HMV are the only steelbook exclusive people who do *sometimes* put in the 3D as well in the UK; sadly in this case (and as TVs have all dropped 3D non-inclusion will only become more prevalent with time) it's just the 4K... even more annoyingly, at the same price as if they *had* included the 3D!

When I said HMV should make the most of their exclusivity I didn’t mean they should necessarily release a 4K + 3D combo - I meant they should do a 3D-only Steelbook, which has been done by all three retailers in the past, and several times in 2018. A 4K + 3D combo is great but raises the price which is a problem for some people - but as you’ve pointed out, here HMV are charging so much already for the 4K Steelbook that they should have included 3D anyway.
I was hoping Amazon or Zavvi might have grabbed the exclusivity for a 3D Steelbook, but it appears that’s not the case, so the options are an English-titled 3D Slipcase or European-titled 3D or 4K+3D Steelbook...

As I said before, unlike Venom (which HMV also chose to only do a 4K Steelbook for), the 3D edition of Fantastic Beasts 2 is getting a wide UK release so there’s no “3D is dead” excuse on the part of HMV in this case really. If anything, the retailer’s decision threatens to send a negative signal to Warner Brothers who until now have been pretty great at releasing 3D
The upside is that on Amazon UK’s Blu-ray bestseller list the 3D edition is #236 while the 4K is #261 (both remain niche as the standard blu-ray is #46)...

[Voltaire53]

Originally Posted by rwc

When I said HMV should make the most of their exclusivity I didn’t mean they should necessarily release a 4K + 3D combo - I meant they should do a 3D-only Steelbook, which has been done by all three retailers in the past, and several times in 2018.

Fair point; sorry to mis-understand you

A 4K + 3D combo is great but raises the price which is a problem for some people - but as you’ve pointed out, here HMV are charging so much already for the 4K Steelbook that they should have included 3D anyway.

It seems to be the way though should is a bit hard when HMV are charging £30 for the 4K/2D steel and Zavvi just charged £33 for Ant-Man and the Wasp 4K steel also with no 3D... and if you wanted the 3D steelbook you had to then spend ANOTHER £25,... and it didn't even have different artwork - but hey you get another 2D copy, so that's fine!
Zavvi get a lot MORE stick (IMO, probably not yours, correctly) for doing both and trying to get you to pay twice... they NEVER do a triple like HMV do sometimes.

I was hoping Amazon or Zavvi might have grabbed the exclusivity for a 3D Steelbook, but it appears that’s not the case, so the options are an English-titled 3D Slipcase or European-titled 3D or 4K+3D Steelbook...

Possible but again if you want both it costs a fortune (and we know the discs cost peanuts so it's just the fact it's a separate, licenced item that makes it expensive). I assume it's not just HMV being 'we won't bother' though - I imagine they have to negotiate costs of licencing and work out which makes the best financial sense for each title, as much as neither of us like it when they don't come up with the answers we would like!

As I said before, unlike Venom (which HMV also chose to only do a 4K Steelbook for), the 3D edition of Fantastic Beasts 2 is getting a wide UK release so there’s no “3D is dead” excuse on the part of HMV in this case really. If anything, the retailer’s decision threatens to send a negative signal to Warner Brothers who until now have been pretty great at releasing 3D
The upside is that on Amazon UK’s Blu-ray bestseller list the 3D edition is #236 while the 4K is #261 (both remain niche as the standard blu-ray is #46)...

... and the DVD will outsell them all

[rwc]

Originally Posted by Voltaire53

Possible but again if you want both [4K and 3D] it costs a fortune (and we know the discs cost peanuts so it's just the fact it's a separate, licenced item that makes it expensive).

Yep. This and the fact they constantly include a standard blu-ray disc (failing to port over bonuses from it while often leaving unused space on the 4K/3D disc) even when the product is clearly designed for double-dippers interested in packaging and who already own the discs (like collectors steelbooks released much later)... The inflexibility with regards to packaging and content/discs is what really irritates me, the whole system is flawed in this way and frankly it is physical media’s main hamartia. We’ve all become so used to it that it’s hard to recognise how inflexible it is now compared to other industries. Forcing those only interested in new packaging to rebuy the discs and forcing those only interested in discs to spend extra for packaging, all the while having limited options (if any choice at all) within both packaging and discs. So when it comes to which physical option to choose increasingly people are either accepting an unnecessary premium or ticking the box ‘none of the above’ and turning to streaming. I’ve already posted at length in this forum about a potential solution so won’t again...