MS unveils Paramount download deal

By Robert Purchese Published 18 February, 2008

Transformers out tomorrow.

Microsoft has unveiled a fancy deal with Paramount to offer its old and new films on the Live Video Store.

From tomorrow you will be able to download Transformers, with others including Disturbia and Naked Gun expected this spring.

"We're very excited to announce this new relationship," Paramount's Alex Carlos told our roving reporter Oli Welsh at an event on Friday.

"We have lots of great content that fits this demographic. We're excited about digital distribution, especially being on a platform as elegant as Xbox 360."

Microsoft will also be bolstering its digital offerings with a fresh batch of Warner Bros. films, such as The Assassination of Jesse James and Beowulf.

The Live Video Store launched in Europe last December. It lets you download films in either standard or high-definition and watch them any time within the space of two weeks. Once you hit play you only have 24 hours until it self destructs.

The films cost 250 Points (GBP 2.13 / EUR 3) for standard definition, and 380 Points (GBP 3.23 / EUR 4.56) for high definition.

Paramount supported the service when it launched in the USA in November 2006, and has continued to champion the Microsoft cause by exclusively siding with the HD-DVD format.

Paramount Pictures / DreamWorks films due this spring.

  • Transformers (available in SD and HD)
  • Goodbye Bafana (available in SD and HD)
  • Intersection (available in SD)
  • Primal Fear (available in SD)
  • Clear and Present Danger (available in SD)
  • Naked Gun 2 & 1/2: The Smell of Fear (available in SD)
  • Naked Gun 33 & 1/3 (available in SD)
  • Top Secret! (available in SD)
  • Bug (available in SD)
  • Hardball (available in SD)
  • The Phantom (available in SD)
  • Orange County (available in SD)
  • 1408 (available in SD and HD)
  • Disturbia (available in SD and HD)
  • Hot Rod (available in SD and HD)
  • A Mighty Heart (available in SD and HD)
  • Heartbreak Kid (available in SD and HD)
  • Stardust (available in SD and HD)
  • In to the Wild (available in SD and HD)

Warner Bros. films due this spring.

  • The Assassination of Jesse James (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
  • Beowulf (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
  • License to Wed (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
  • No Reservations (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
  • The December Boys (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
  • Nancy Drew (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (53) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • agparrot #1 4 years ago

    Too busy playing games on my 360 for this palarver.

  • AcidSnake #2 4 years ago

    Just 24 hours?
    They should make it 48 minimum if they want to compete with videorental services...

  • mcwildcard #3 4 years ago

    Calling HD-DVD, calling HD-DVD, come in, your time is up...

  • discobiscuit #4 4 years ago

    in the uk?

  • redlander #5 4 years ago

    Michael Bay was right then.

  • effinjamie #6 4 years ago

    more like 580 points for HD, RIPOFF!

  • NewbieZilla #7 4 years ago

    Is the Italian Job any good? I picked it up as part of _ for __ euros. Can't remember what for what, as it was a while back, still haven't gotten around to watching it, or many others yet.

    There are some there I already own, and the ones I want I'd rather have in DVD format than download format.

  • Carlo #8 4 years ago

    £3.23 for a film in HD (but what compression?) for 24 hours. No ta.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #9 4 years ago

    Is the Italian Job any good?

    Original: yes, very.

    Marky-Mark & the Funky Bunch version: no, not at all.

  • Darkedge #10 4 years ago

    @redlander Michael bay is a moron.

    but this service is way too expensive. I'll never touch it at that cost.

  • light&shadow #11 4 years ago

    I'd rather rent a blu-ray for 2.5 euros (at Image Mediastores here in belgium for instance).

  • Cyclone #12 4 years ago

    What would the HD files be like size wise? They'd probably be 1 GB per hour at the bare minimum. That'd take quite a chunk out of a broadband limit, especially when u can only view it for a day.

  • tapper #13 4 years ago

    Why are all these online services so expensive? For example, I can find most Steam games at a retail store for a cheaper price (and I get a box to boot), I can go to a video rental store and pick up movies for less money than this service cost.

    One would think that not having to pay for floorspace and logistics would bring the possibility of lower prices than retail stores, no?

  • Arwin #14 4 years ago

    I'm suddenly thinking whether Paramount and Microsoft supported HD DVD for the same reason ... . They may certainly have come up with this together while talking about HD DVD stuff anyway.

    "The Live Video Store launched in Europe last December."

    It did? I didn't notice it over here (The Netherlands), only some (very lame) videoclips available for purchase. Surely that's not it? I'm taking then one or two countries actually got some decent content?

  • trav #15 4 years ago

    Transformers on Blu-Ray please?

    Sorry... what? Digital download? No... I said BLU-RAY!

  • NewbieZilla #16 4 years ago

    "Original: yes, very.

    Marky-Mark & the Funky Bunch version: no, not at all."

    Nice one. As it happens, I have both versions in the one box. I keep on buying 3 for 30s or 5 for 50s, but with work, and playing the 360 so much I have a big pile to watch through.

  • woodnotes #17 4 years ago

    "more like 580 points for HD, RIPOFF! "

    Only for the newer film, but I agree it's still overpriced. Especially considering LoveFilm are doing BluRay (although they don't have all the BluRay movies), and you can pay £14.99 a month with them and have 3 at a time!

    "It did? I didn't notice it over here (The Netherlands), only some (very lame) videoclips available for purchase. Surely that's not it? I'm taking then one or two countries actually got some decent content? "

    MS don't care about you Netherlands people, so they only launched it in UK, France and Germany, but will be expanding it to the rest of Europe throughout the year. Different films have different distributors in each country, so it makes it difficult to launch every film in every country, hence the delay.
    Edited by 1 at 15/02/08 @ 17:01

  • Shrui #18 4 years ago

    @Tapper

    Most download services like Metaboli (sorry EG) or Direct2Download for buying the game outright I don't like as you only get limited licenses for something that costs more than the budget range of Game. Not useful if your system loses data.

    Steam however i do appreciate. For a little more I have a copy of the game whereever I install Steam (at the moment across three computers) without having to take the hard copies with me. Even on one system I don't need to go searching for the discs to play it.

    For me this works as I switch between these three systems quite a bit and only have to worry about transferring save games.

    Down side is the install times can be slow so if your in a rush to play that particular game then you might be a bit screwed.

    As for movie downloads, I've yet to see a suitable solution at a decent cost.

  • woodnotes #19 4 years ago

    "The 360 is too loud to watch movies really so what's the point? "

    Eh? My Elite is just as quiet as my PS3, EXCEPT when I'm playing a game (cue jet plane noises etc). But as the DVD drive won't be in action when you're watching a downloaded movie, there's no issue here. I still refuse to pay the rediculous prices though, that's the real issue.
    Edited by 1 at 15/02/08 @ 17:03

  • tapper #20 4 years ago

    @Shrui, I agree that Steam is convenient. What I don't like is that companies are saving money on DLC but none of the savings are passed on to the customers (in fact, it's often more expensive).

    Unless I'm missing something in this equation.

  • Xerx3s #21 4 years ago

    "Just 24 hours?
    They should make it 48 minimum if they want to compete with videorental services... "

    Ah but you forget 2 things. 24 hours is normal and they are the largest living room DD service so others are competing with them.

    EDIT: Not that I think rental services are good value for money as I can import most films for little more than the cost to rent them 1 day. I also don't see a reason to switch from dvd as the quality of upscaled dvd is perfectly fine. HD = Too expensive & doesn't offer sufficient benefits over the cheap stuff.
    Edited by 1 at 18/02/08 @ 09:19

  • space_ace #22 4 years ago

    The 360 is too loud to watch movies really so what's the point?

    really. ms do something!!

  • Lexx87 #23 4 years ago

    If you add in the cost of you driving to the video store...two pounds isn't really that terrible. When do you watch a video you rent more than once?

  • DonnieDarko333 #24 4 years ago

    Damn i just watched Disturbia and really enjoyed it, and would have preferred to watch it in HD!

  • Raziel #25 4 years ago

    "The Live Video Store launched in Europe last December."

    Not in all of Europe.... bastards...
    No video's for us here in Holland.

  • mcmonkeyplc #26 4 years ago

    TOP GUN! TOP GUN! TOP GUN!

  • BadBoyBonner #27 4 years ago

    Ha ha ha Sky HD just seems better and better value reading what MS are charging for one film in HD

    Upscaled DVD + Sky HD for the win!

  • symbiote #28 4 years ago

    Why bother? For a couple of quid more you can BUY AND KEEP the film.

    Digital Downloading is TOSH!

  • BM #29 4 years ago

    Get Hot Rod on a HD release, more people need to see this

  • DanWhitehead #30 4 years ago

    Ah but you forget 2 things. 24 hours is normal and they are the largest living room DD service so others are competing with them.

    Xbox Live may be the largest "true" digital download service, but it's got a long way to go before it can compete with Sky Box Office in terms of numbers. As far as the customer is concerned, the result it pretty much the same - they get to have a movie on TV without trekking to Blockbuster. Microsoft's biggest hurdle will be in selling people on the idea that waiting for an HD download is preferable to choosing a start time on Sky.

  • monkie_king #31 4 years ago

    Carlo: even with the compression, it's way better than DVD, IMO. Try downloading a "featured trailer" in HD for free if you want to try it out.

    Remember that codecs have moved on a long way since MPEG2, so for comparable file size you get much better quality than DVD and Freeview. It'd be interesting to know what bandwidth you get with SkyHD movies vs. MS downloads. Theres a comparison here of DVD vs Blu-Ray vs AppleTV HD downloads vs digital cable. I'd imagine that the Xbox HD movies will look similar to the Apple ones.

  • Darren #32 4 years ago

    Wow, glorious 720p HD, 1980s-quality stereo sound and NO subtitles or extras: the future of movie downloads is positively exciting is it not? LOL

    After waiting 18 hours to watch Zodiac on HD, Microsoft can stuff their Video Marketplace where the sun doesn't shine IMO... I'll stick to spending my £5 on DVDs thanks, which include DD5.1/DTS soundtracks and subtitles not to mention extras. And I'll continue to buy proper 1080p BD movies for £18 too.

    Thanks but no thanks, Microsoft! :p

  • miiiguel #33 4 years ago

    Can PS3 read DiVX?

  • Olemak #34 4 years ago

    HD DVD is officially dead. by the way. Toshiba has even stopped making drives, so that's pretty much it.

    <a href="http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/hd-dvd-death-ma. html">Link to gadget lab news item</A>

    Isn't Sony about to unveil something in this vein as well? Sony is a movie company too, of course - that could be be an advantage for the startup phaze, but could make competitors reluctant to join in later in the game.

    Personally, I think a good third-party online video rental (and buying, like Steam does for games) could be rather sucsessful if they were platform independet, working on both PS3, Xbox , Windows and other platforms.Of course, icrosoft would compete woith such a compaly, and be unlikely to let it operate on the Xbox platform, or maybe buy it outright. I don't know if such a ventre exist today.... APplle, with it Apple TV comes pretty close tho. But they're everything but platform independent. Maybe DivX could make some changes and go bigtime...

  • BartonFink #35 4 years ago

    Can PS3 read DiVX?
    yup

  • Frumper #36 4 years ago

    The biggest issue for me is the sound quality as Darren mentioned. The current films available are compromised.

    SD visuals with 5.1 or HD with Stereo. I mean stereo?! Come on. This is supposed to be a step up in the movie experience and they are not giving us the full package.

    How much bigger would a HD download be with 5.1/DTS etc?

  • miiiguel #37 4 years ago

    The truth is Blu-Ray doesn't seem to be much alive either, I tried to browse for a Blu-Ray movie (my 1st) and I only found mainstream crap, at a huge price, and very, very few titles.

    Barton: is it out of the box? I have a friend here that bought one just to be a Blu-Ray player, but as he's having the same problem I described above he wants to watch all those movies "somebody" here downloads from those P2P's.
    Edited by 2 at 18/02/08 @ 10:32

  • BartonFink #38 4 years ago

    You will need the latest firmware miiiguel

  • bad09 #39 4 years ago

    Having used it twice I have to say this service is completely useless! I'm always knocking Sony for concentrating less on games and MS are taking a step in this wrong direction with this service. Come on guys, the Wii proves a games console can BE a games console!!!

    If I want to watch a movie I'll watch a DVD. It's certainly better values than this crap. The price is a rip off (you're better off renting DVD), The standard def verisons are TERRIBLE compared to DVD, you only get stereo sound on the movies, you get them for only 24 hours from starting to watch and they take a hours (at least) to download!

    Stick to games people, I buy a games console to play games. Am I the only one these days?

  • JediMasterMalik #40 4 years ago

    Lovefilm all the way baby.

  • miiiguel #41 4 years ago

    Chill Res, you should know EGers by now. For some crowd anything MS will always be crap, don't even need to know what it is.

    On the other hand, I'd love to have this service, here, in the arse of Europe. I guess this is mainly to Americans, they like this service a lot, so it seems.
    Edited by 1 at 18/02/08 @ 11:36

  • erp #42 4 years ago

    I thought the strapline was a Gremlins pun...

    Damn.

  • T4RG4 #43 4 years ago

    Not enough films and (the times I tried) a dodgy download service. Better off with established people like lovefilm.com

    etc.

  • polar #44 4 years ago

    I'll be interested just as soon as they announce that they're going to put some decent movies on the service instead of peddling this second rate dross.

  • Calgon #45 4 years ago

    Really sad how some seem to do nothing but troll MS related articles and manage to put a negative spin on whatever it is, "it plays games?... games are bad, *link to Jack Thompson article* see it says so right there so it must be true, M$ are teh evil." I mean do they even play on their PS3's?

    well whatever floats their boats eh? /shruggs

    I havent seen any of these or myself so cant comment on the image quality but I get the feeling some of the people commenting on the quality here probably havent watched any either(because EG themselves already commented on the quality with no such complaints, plus I know from experience compression like DivX offers excellent quality these days)... :( buh buh but Micheal Bay said bbblu-ray is best you stupid xbots, you can watch them on a PS3 dont you know? ;)

    They should add 5.1 DD as an option atleast for HD movies, it will result in larger files but since it can be compressed in WMA with good quality it's doable.
    Edited by 2 at 18/02/08 @ 13:15

  • Ryze #46 4 years ago

    This is an advert - but it's informative all the same...

  • Ryze #47 4 years ago

    Plus... Microsoft is competing with Lovefilm, Sky, Blockbuster, Virgin Media, Play.com and everyone else who sells movies.

    It's too expensive considering it also costs a ton of bandwidth and takes time. Needs a price drop for some of the films.

    TV shows would be nice as well.

  • polar #48 4 years ago

    @ Galgon.

    I've watched the Matrix on HD from the marketplace and overall it was ok. Image quality was noticeably better than DVD , but as mentioned sound was in Stereo only. It took the guts of 24 hours to download on my 4 MB connection, so it wasn't the most convenient purchase really.

    The cost of the service is steep for what they're offering. I could rent the Matrix from my local video shop along with 2 other movies for 3 nights at a cost of 5 Euro. The Matrix download cost me almost as much. While the picture quality was very good I'd stop well short of calling it amazing.

    Ultimately though, cost and download times aside, I can't see the service being a success unless it offers better films than are currently available along with a decent range of quality tv shows.

  • Calgon #49 4 years ago

    Polar it took over 10 hours to download? well that doesnt sound right as some people have said they can watch as its downloading/streaming, well its obviously in its early stages and theres no doubt many things they can improve upon but they have to start somewhere right? They are the first to try something like this and it could pay off for them and the consumer if they do it right, it all depends how serious they are about it.

    I think Live needs improvement in the speed stakes now(and they most likley are working on that they regularly close the service for maintanence and the like) but it seems some people have more problems with Lives connection speed than others, perhaps there could be areas where MS might be able to work with certain ISP's to solve some of those issues. Another thing is it really could be your ISP because some have hidden caps that might kick in while you're downloading off live.
    Edited by 1 at 18/02/08 @ 14:38

  • Fab4 #50 4 years ago

    Aww...I thought they meant 'Paramount' as in the last CD from German Prog Metalists, Sieges Even.

  • polar #51 4 years ago

    I can only comment on how long it took me that one time - I've only used the service once.That was during the first week of the service - perhaps they've inproved it since... I was downloading the film in HD - I doubt MS' servers are good enough to allow anyone to stream HD - perhaps those reports were made with regard to watchin SD content?

    Regardless of any logistical issues with regard to actually downloading the files, the content simply hasn't been strong enough for me to return to the service. I downloaded the Matrix merely out of curiosity and was thinking about downloading Zodiac in the future, but they've now made that SD only so I won't be bothering with it. I really hope it works out for them, as I like the idea of downloading films and tv shows to my 360. But they won't get any more custom from me unless they put something on there that I want to watch.

  • adamamosa #52 4 years ago

    I have to say the pricing is quite reasonable. I only rent films say once every six weeks so the subscription based rentals are not an option for me. Blockbuster costs £3.50 for a nights rental on top titles. Plus I have to drive a couple of quids worth in petrol twice. Not to mention having to take time out of my evening to do so. So Im quite happy to pay the asking price for the service to watch the odd film. If youre not happy to pay - then dont!

  • DefdumBlindkid #53 4 years ago

    Oh no!!!
    *Digs out single player games in preparation of impending Xbox Live failure*

    Paramount dude called 360 system as 'elegant' lol! I'd hate to see his gf!!
    Edited by 1 at 18/02/08 @ 16:03