Lionsgate, Valve partnership brings big-name films to Steam

[Shawn Knight]

Valve has signed a deal with entertainment giant Lionsgate that brings more than 100 movies to its digital distribution platform.

A quick check of Steam reveals several popular films including Crank, Kick-Ass and The Expendables as well as movies from the Hunger Games, Saw, Twilight and Divergent franchises.

Pricing varies depending on the title although as of writing, the low-end is $3.99 while the most you’ll pay is $4.99. Once rented, you’ll have up to 30 days to begin watching and 48 hours to finish once started. Streaming is supported on all Steam-supported platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux, SteamOS and even in virtual reality via SteamVR.

Lionsgate said more films will be added as the partnership expands worldwide.

Jim Packer, Lionsgate President of Worldwide Television & Digital Distribution, said Steam represents a unique, exciting and disruptive opportunity to expand its global distribution business.

Valve head of marketing Doug Lombardi said Lionsgate films are engaging audiences and fostering rich communities around the world, reflecting the kind of high-quality entertainment that they expect to drive the continued expansion of Steam’s content offering.

A hundred titles or so isn’t exactly a massive catalog but landing a licensing agreement with a major player like Lionsgate is still a pretty big deal. The next logical step for Valve will be to ink similar deals with other major studios in order to offer an even larger library to its more than 125 million users.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/64565-lionsgate-valve-partnership-brings-big-name-films-steam.html

 

[Kibaruk]

The only way I'm "renting" a movie through the internet is if I can watch at the moment cinema releases at home.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Once rented, you’ll have up to 30 days to begin watching and 48 hours to finish once started.

In that case, No Thank You.

 

[amstech]

I love Steam but do we really need more avenue's to watch movies?
Seems every device I have comes with 14 apps to watch movies, some apps offering the same and/or similar content.

 

[lipe123]

I love Steam but do we really need more avenue's to watch movies?
Seems every device I have comes with 14 apps to watch movies, some apps offering the same and/or similar content.

Of course we need more competition.

If you have a small number of companies controlling the entire streaming business you'll end up with the consumers losing out big time.

Also more opportunities the rights holders get for license fees and whatnot the better for them, they have the movie files saved, its really not hard for them to make a copy and give it to steam or anyone else for that matter.

 

[Bubbajim]

I love Steam but do we really need more avenue's to watch movies?
Seems every device I have comes with 14 apps to watch movies, some apps offering the same and/or similar content.

Of course we need more competition.

If you have a small number of companies controlling the entire streaming business you'll end up with the consumers losing out big time.

I was having this argument with a couple of friends last night. They were moaning that there are so many services - Netflix, Prime, NowTV etc - that it's a pain in the a** and you have to subscribe to a bunch of different services. They couldn't see what a terrible thing it would be for the creative industry to just have one monolithic publisher/distributer.

Bring on the competition!