Lionsgate adds 100 movies to Steam, not really for South Africa

Things are heating up in the video on demand space, so much so that it’s spilling over into gaming. Entertainment company Lionsgate has added 100 titles to popular digital distribution platform for gaming, Steam. That’s exciting news, but if you’re in SA, you may want to keep reading this article before throwing money at Steam.

The announcement came from a blog post on Steam’s website, in which the company was happy to highlight the availability of the Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent, and Saw franchises. Lionsgate has significantly more interesting films, but I guess you need to highlight the ones that pump out money.

Now comes the sad part for South Africans. The post contains a quote by Lionsgate president of worldwide television & digital distribution, Jim Packer, which reads: “With over 125 million users, Steam represents a unique, exciting and disruptive opportunity to expand our global distribution business.” Unfortunately, South Africa doesn’t seem to be counted within those numbers, or at least, not for all of their titles.

Yes, we’re able to rent Lionsgate movies on Steam, but they’re limited to the following movies:

• Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland – R39.99
• Deck the Halls – R29.99
• Incident at Loch Ness– R29.99
• Leprechaun – R29.99
• Leprechaun 2 – R29.99
• Leprechaun 3– R29.99
• Leprechaun 4: Lost in Space – R29.99
• Natural Born Pranksters – R39.99
• Return of the Living Dead 3 – R29.99
• Russkies – R29.99
• Two Family House – R29.99

Yip, these are the glorious movies South Africans are privy too, and we’re not good enough for Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood. Those are all titles you’ll find for less that the stated rented price at any Pick n Pay or Checkers’ DVD bargain bin.

With renting, you’ll have to watch within 30 days of rental and then 48-hours of starting the movie, which is similar to how Google Movies works.

Before getting upset at Steam, these titles are more than likely due to licensing rights. Other companies would have the digital licenses for SA, which means Steam cannot list them here. Until they can, stick to Showmax, Netflix, or dare I say it, ONTAPtv.

Movies can be streamed to Windows, Mac, Linux, SteamOS, and SteamVR.

One of the more interesting takes from the announcement is this bit of text: “The deal reflects Lionsgate’s commitment to monetize its content across an expanding array of digital platforms by offering its movies, television programming and digital content to online audiences around the world.” Yip, it’s just for the monies.