Some disheartening Blu-ray news has come to light that leaves us scratching our head in disbelief.
Last December 9, Fox Home Entertainment released the unrated version of Dodgeball on Blu-ray Disc. Consumers typically prefer the unrated cut so this seemed like a good decision at the time.
Now we’ve learned Fox is releasing the rated version as a standalone Blu-ray release on May 12. In less than six months we will have seen two Dodgeball Blu-ray titles released with minimal differences between them.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t one of the biggest advantages to Blu-ray Disc over HD DVD the extra storage capacity that would allow seamless branching to be used so we could avoid these unnecessary double-dips? Do we really need two different skus so close together?
Further adding to the confusion is Dodgeball was originally pre-announced for Blu-ray in 2006 but was postponed at the time for reasons unknown. Clearly there was enough lead time to get both versions on a single disc, or even two-disc set, without having to resort to this double-dip.
Now we’re left wondering whether Fox has “Rated” versions planned for other films as well. Please, no.
