Starting today, Xbox LIVE Marketplace in Canada, UK, Ireland, France, and Germany will begin featuring full-length movies for download in both standard and high definition.
Unfortunately, due to language requirements and licensing issues, only a little more than 30 films are available in the new marketplace.
Films available at launch include 300, Clash of the Titans, Demolition Man, Mars Attacks! and The Matrix Trilogy. The rental charge for standard definition films is 250 MS Points, while the high-definition version costs 380 MS Points. Those prices are lower than the American marketplace's 320/480 MS Points prices. The lower prices might be meant to reflect the current strength of the Euro, or just a way to encourage a new market.
"We make sure we have a ton of content and we make sure we have local content. We also want to bring it to multiple countries and, right now, we really wanted to focus on the movies because we felt that was really one of the better offerings that Xbox in the U.S. had", said Scott Nocas, Global Marketing Manager for Xbox Live.
"We'll be updating movies on a monthly basis. As new releases come in from our partners, we'll put them up on the same day that everyone else has it, and we'll be adding to the Library titles. At launch, the U.S. Video Store had 37 titles, but we now have over 300 movies. So, for Canada, we plan to aggressively add movies as fast as we can", added Nocas.
The movies available in each region may differ, so be sure to check the Xbox site for your region for the full list of launch titles, and be sure to check back often as more movies are added.