- Joined
- Aug 22, 2018
Iirc, when asked about a Blu-Ray release during his interview with the Dojo, JD said that it was completely up to Sega. Of course, I could be wrong about that, as it was quite some time ago that I watched it.I have always wondered: is a blu-ray considered merchandising?
We don't know the exact details of that deal with Sega, so merchandising could very well just be action figures, clothing, posters, that sort of thing, and not the series itself in a physical copy.
As far as I know, when you buy a physical copy, you are not exactly buying the content but just a "physical license" that gives you the right to access that content according to certain terms and conditions, the same ones that may apply to a copy purchased digitally. This happens with games and all the other types of media sold on discs.
If Sega doesn't have the right to sell digital copies of the series, I don't think they have the right to sell physical copies either. Maybe they get paid for the box and physical materials, but not the contents of the disc.
The rights to this series are shared by so many companies that it ended up complicating the whole process. The series only exists thanks to that, but that's also why it ended up having a short life...
You’re probably right about the overly complicated nature of the deal that led to the show’s creation causing confusion though. Perhaps WB has asked Sega not to do anything with it, and, due to how little they’d stand to make from a Blu-Ray release, Sega has just gone along with it to avoid scuppering any future deals. Anything’s possible, really.