Paramount Pictures and Seagate have teamed up to offer a new hard drive that will ship with the latest Star Trek movie along with 20 additional Paramount movie titles.
Since the Seagate drive has 500GB of storage space for just $100, and with 21 movies included, none of the movies can be viewed until individual licenses are purchased. Each movie will cost $9.99 to $14.99 and all of the movies use around 50GB total on the 500GB HDD.
The same 500GB HDD is available for $139.99, without any preloaded movies.
I think some consumers will buy the drive because it's cheaper just to re-format it and have a clean OS install rather than pay more for a drive. Interestingly, Seagate and Paramount both declined comment about inquiries if they're taking a loss by offering this new custom HDD.
Movie studios and hard drive manufacturers both have to deal with increased competition in their respective industries, which has led to similar product launches in the past. Both Star Wars and Godfather-themed flash drives have been released by companies looking to turn two great movie series into a renewed revenue generator.
Sony offered the film "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" via video-on-demand several weeks before the movie was released on DVD and Blu-ray. The early digital release cost Bravia TV owners $24.95.
Additional movies found on the HDD include: The Italian Job, Enemy at the Gates, The Manchurian Candidate, Beowulf, The Hunt for Red October, and other Paramount movies.
This scheme seems similar to how new PC's come preloaded with a bunch of junkware and trial software, all the while trying to suck you into purchasing a license after the trial expires. But hey, if this helps lower the price of harddrives, we're all for it.
