All of you Sith lords and Jedi apprentices have much to celebrate today, as Disney has finally announced the launch of all six Star Wars films through digital distribution. So why is this news on a gaming website? Because both Microsoft and Sony are reporting the films are joining their respective video catalogs on Xbox and PlayStation consoles.
Star Wars has always been “kind of a big deal” but, ever since Disney bought the rights to the universe (that’s far, far away), it like the hype train is once again rolling full steam ahead. There are a couple of new Star Wars video games coming out, including the highly anticipated and much teased Battlefront, from Electronic Arts. Star Wars comics are making a big comeback, and who can forget the new movie trilogy and even a spinoff or two?
Yeah, it’s safe to say that we’ll be hearing a heck of a lot about Star Wars over the next decade or so. But while we’re gearing up for all of that new content, Disney wanted to remind folks that there’s plenty of older content to dig into as well, including the original movie trilogy.
Sony kept its Star Wars announcement brief, limited to a single tweet that simply reads: “All six Star Wars films are coming to PlayStation Video April 10! You’re overdue for a marathon anyway.”
The folks over in the Xbox camp, however, are doing it up a bit bigger. Along with a news post on the Major Nelson blog, Xbox fans who buy the full movie collection will earn a free copy of Star Wars Pinball from the fine folks at Zen Studios, as well as an R2-D2 Avatar Companion. Pre-orders for the digital films are available on Xbox consoles now, with the full series to release on April 10.
As the news post points out, this is the first time the Star Wars films have been made available in digital HD, and the new set will include “new never-before-seen bonus material.”
“Disney is offering a Star Wars featurette video exclusively for Xbox customers; only by pre-purchasing the Saga on Xbox Video will you receive an exclusive, roughly 60 second sneak peek at the bonus material included in the Star Wars Digital Movie Collection,” continues the post.
The only thing that’s unclear at this point is what version of the original trilogy is being offered through digital distribution. Are we talking about HD-ified versions of the classic films or the “updated” versions that were more recently released and generally pissed off a lot of fans due to silly CG additions and whatnot? And for those of you who are curious, it looks like the movies will be $20 individually or $100 for the collection of six.
So, are any of our readers planning on diving into the Star Wars digital universe? Let us know in the comments below.
