HBO has announced the release dates for both digital and hard copies (Blu-Ray & DVD) of Game of Thrones Season 5 as well as the accompanying bonus features!
Season 5 will be available to download in Digital HD on August 31st and is now available for pre-order!
Additionally, fans can pre-order a hard copy as well (Blu-Ray or DVD) through retailers such as Amazon which will be released just in time for Season 6 on March 15th 2016.
Bonus features will be available on both digital and hard releases and will include many Dorne-centric pieces such as:
An Introduction to Dorne – featuring Alexander Siddig (Doran Martell), Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand) and the Sand Snakes themselves: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rosabell Laurenti Sellers and Jessica Henwick!
Poisons of Westeros – a featurette detailing the most cunning mode of murder in Westeros.
Invitation to the Set – an exclusive look at the sets of Game of Thrones.
A Day in the Life – a look inside the preparation of Season 5 showcasing the locations and immense crew that put the show together. The feature was previously aired before Season 5 debuted and can be seen here.
Set Design – production designer Deborah Riley gives a first hand look at what it’s like to create such impressive sets like Dorne.
The Weapons of Dorne – weapons master Tommy Dunne goes behind the scenes at creating the lethal weapons designed especially for the Sand Snakes.
New Characters & Locations – an in-depth look at new characters and locations featuring The House of Black and White, Dorne, Doran Martell, The Sand Snakes, the High Sparrow, and more!
Season 4 Recap – revisit season 4 and refresh for season 5!
Trailer – tease yourself with what’s to come before you rewatch its entirety!
The digital release is priced at $38.99 HD and $28.99 SD. The price of the hard copy will be unveiled closer to its release.
For the full press release, head on over to HBO!
Will you be picking up Season 5 when it’s released? In what form? Let us know below!
6.5 month difference between the digital and hard copies? That is obscene. There is no reason for such a huge gap. It is like they want people to pirate their content.
Many people are not aware, but you don’t actually own the digital content. You are renting it for life. At any point the studios have the rights to remove it from your “digital lockers”. Look at the terms of service, it is all in there.
Shame on HBO…
No commentary tracks,or maybe they haven’t finished recording them yet ?
I am not clear on this.
There are ‘extras’ but no commentaries?
O wait are not these the extras we have already seen?
I think they are available on HBO GO and HBO premium.
HBO’s biz model about DVD release still does not compute.
Why not take advantage of the Christmas season?
Seems like a large focus on Dorne related topics – something that would discourage me from purchasing the Bluray. I really enjoy the comments and commentaries. Sigh
So much Dorne…
I can’t wait for the DVDs!
So, only two new featurettes in this digital release. It’s so very nearly a scam, ha. Not sure why [HBO thinks] anyone would go for this instead of waiting for the usual good stuff (commentaries!!! and histories/lore) plus an actual permanent copy with the Blu-ray discs. Yeah, I’ll wait ’til next year (really, March??? isn’t it usually February?).
Last year, they really didn’t have extensive detail about the DVD/Blu-rays until much closer to the release. So I imagine there will be more information months from now.
Not impressed by the Dorne centric features. That was easily the weakest part of the season and maybe the weakest of the series. I’ve gotten blu Rays for seasons 1-4 so only interesting new history and lore and a new sigil on the box art would make me consider purchasing the physical copy. No way I’m buying digital.
Hear… hear. (Pycelle style)
Do they use the DVDs to hype up the next season???
HBO seriously loves pirating, their business model makes it flourish
I really don’t get the commercial strategy here. I guess the early digital release is meant to combat illegal downloading, but if you’re going to do that, why wait to release the disks?
If I need to hazard a guess, the big instore presence makes (casual) customers/viewers remember the show: just in time to first rewatch the previous season and than subscribe to HBO for the new season. You’re right about the early digital release though. If they would release the hardcopies immediately after, the run-up-hype could be affected (for casual-viewers) and therefore actual subscriptions may turn out lower.
Special Feature: “We Really Want You to Care About Dorne so Here Are 500 In-Depth Features on Why You Should Give a F*ck”.
If they really wanted to combat piracy they wouldn’t have made HBO Now only available on the Apple TV. And they would also release the episodes the day after like everybody else does with their shows. And they wouldn’t be charging $15 for HBO Now when Hulu and Netflix are each around $8 and have much better content.
And releasing the blu rays a half a year later…. mine as well tell people to pirate HBO at this point.
Bad business strategy is bad.
Anybody who can legally watch GoT can watch GoT the day after. That’s why they have HBOnow, as far as I heard, they were expending it to different devices. It’s probably your opinion that HBO doesn’t agree with, regarding the comparison between its content and Hulu and Netflix’ content. Especially in terms of quality, HBO isn’t going to say: “Netflix and Hulu have a better selection and thus we’re going to go under their rate. No, HBO is all about quality (they do swarm the Emmy’s like no other so they can get away with it), and they will price their content accordingly to what they see fit, not how you rate it.
And honest question here, can you in fact watch the entire new season of House of Cards -legally- the day after it is dropped on Netflix, without subscribing? Now that sounds like a really bad business model to me.
And as I said, releasing the DVD/Blu-Ray’s in March allows HBO to capitalize on instore presence so that casual viewers are reminded of the upcoming season and endeavor to either subscribe to HBO, or get HBOnow. It’s not that hard to understand.
I think i’m the only one excited about this, haha! I always buy my seasons of Game of Thrones from Amazon Instant Video, so I (and other family members) can watch it off of my account (on many different tv/devices). I figure i will wait until the series is all over, and there will be some “special extended whatever DVD special thing” and i’ll want to buy it, sooo… I’m happy i’m getting it months early 🙂 In the past couple years i’ve converted to buying digital content instead of dvds/books, because they take up so much less room (room i don’t have at the moment) (yes, i still do buy regular books sometimes though,I used to be a library page, so old habits die hard 😉
The fact that they pretty much eviscerated most of the dorne story line in favour of such magical treats as ‘dirty pussy’ makes this less appealing then the other seasons. So so much disappointment. This will most likely be a obligatory purchase just to complete the set, but I’ll wait to buy when it comes down in price, seeing as there really is no real gain in prepurchasing other than getting scammed out of an additional £20 – £30.
So to rent the digital copy costs more than what the blu ray copy with digital copy included will cost. Who in their right mind would buy the digital copy?
Christ, they really shot themselves in the fucking foot with all this Dorne shit, eh?
Easily by far the WORST and WEAKEST part of the entire series, Dorne was so poorly done, and now they have all these crap documentaries focusing soley on the huge steaming pile of turd that was Dorne. Oooo the set design! Ooooo the weapons! OOOOOO an actual introduction featuring the sand snakes themselves!
Who. The. Fuck. Cares?
Dorne centric features. I didn’t hate that story line as much as other people but it was the weakest story line. I guess they planned out the features before the season aired.
If Dorne has a bigger role next season, then they are getting us used to it by flooding all their extras with that arc. Annoy us into submission.
I will buy the Blu Ray but I hope they have other extras. History and lores would be awesome. I saw almost all of those extras on HBO on Demand.
Once again missing Christmas smh.
The Bastard,
HBO Now’s limited-time Apple exclusivity was defensible. I imagine the deal made HBO a lot of money, and it was only for a very short period. Today, users can sign up for streaming HBO without an Apple account or a cable subscription, and that’s tremendous progress from a year ago.
True, HBO doesn’t seem to prioritize limiting piracy, but that’s not the only business consideration in play.
Once again getting the casual viewer hyped for the new season a month and a half from the start of the new season. Keep in mind, this deliberate sale date, so close to the new season serves so they can bring casual viewers to subscribe to HBO again because they will want to watch the newest material when in it comes out, which is likely more important than the extra sales they could get on Christmas.
Heck, that’s how they got me hooked. Season 1 was on sale, season 2 just came out and S3 was about to come out. Actually waited a year to watch it, since my gf has this thing against watching stuff online – so I read the books instead -. Bought the S3 dvd when it came out and than got a temporary subscription to HBO. Did the same this year. It’s a good scheme they’ve got.
The Bastard,
First, let me say that I agree with your frustrations 100%, but I have to comment on your statement about not owning the digital content. In reality, if you look closely at the ToS on CD’s, DVD’s, Blu-Rays, Video games, etc. you will find that when you purchase physical media, you don’t own the episodes or content then either. You really are buying the disc and the disc only. They still own the show. That being said, I completely see and agree with your point on preferring discs over digital copies. I have a few Vudu movies/TV shows, but someday, that website/company may be shut down and I will never be able to access those movies again. At least with a disc, not only do you get the best picture and sound quality, but you could keep it for the long haul.
If any of those Dorne features will include lots of scenery and locations, I’ll be a happy customer. Didn’t care much about the story-line, but location — more please.
Since we’re discussing the Blu-ray/DVD release, that made me think of one of my favourite guessing games: trying to guess who gives audio commentary on what episode.
Unrelatedly, after sojourning in England for the last week or so, Sophie appears to be back in Belfast: https://instagram.com/p/5z_vjqnqvE/
Ser Oromis Locke,
Once again missing out on all those people who would love to receive the new season as a Christmas gift. Delaying the release only encourages piracy, it doesn’t increase excitement for the new season.
It’s not a GoT thing or an HBO thing. It’s an INDUSTRY thing. 95% of the time, the previous season of a show comes to Blu/DVD 4-8 weeks before the new season premieres.
Unless you wait a very long time pre-purchasing can actually be cheaper. I waited for Season 3 to come down in price but it didn’t (maybe it did after Season 4 was released). I pre-ordered Season 4 & saved £5. The ‘Friends’ box set is cheap now but at one point is was £100. I’m not waiting years unfortunately, although I did wait for the Blu-ray of the extended LOTR. Took years.
You’re missing the point, or deliberately ignoring it. When you put the dvd boxes in store in March, what happens is that you have instore brochures, brochures you may or may not get in the mail and a big instore presence most of the time, right when people would need to sign up for HBO in order to watch the next season.
It’s about bringing the merchandise in front of the faces of casual viewers square and center at the moment where HBO needs to pull in their subscriptions for the new season. And those thousand and thousand extra subscriptions > extra buck during the Christmas-season. You might want it during Christmas, but for HBO, they need to reach the casual viewer at the right time to keep their brand presence up, like a month or so before they release the beast. March -> April does that. December -> April and the brandpresence will have faded come januari, because everybody and their mother will either be sitting behind their latest gaming console or whatever they got for Christmas and generally lasts longer than 10hrs of play. If you’re Christmas-scenario plays out, HBO will need to bring something else relating to Game of Thrones out into the market to reestablish that brand presence. There’s simply no point in that and I doubt they could actually do that. Aren’t the GoT-Monopoly/Risk games coming out around Christmas btw?
Delaying the release of Dvd’s promotes piracy? They’ve went out of their way to produce platforms that counter that.
In my eyes, and likely HBO’s, delaying these releases in the end realizes a massive spike in paying subscribers come the Game of Thrones season (unless there’s something spectacular airing prior to it that people need to see and are willing to subscribe en masse for, which there isn’t, GoT is their biggest cashcow and they know that very well). I’m guessing you’re looking at it from a pirating perspective and that’s why you just don’t understand what I’m saying here.
For the people who would to see it earlier, there’s the digital version, or just subscribe to HBO for a month and watch it On Demand, whichever you fancy more. People who pirate, will pirate, even if there are cheap alternatives that offer more legal content. For example, I can subscribe to HBO and watch all seasons of Game of Thrones, True Detective and Outlander and others and a crapload of movies that I’ll barely watch. One month costs me €15. That’s cheaper than the digital release or the DVD box. So people who pirate will still pirate despite there being a legal and cheaper option.
Anything Hardhome or Daznak related? well that’s somewhat disappointing.
That’s funny. It is been less than a month since it became possible to watch S5 legally here in Japan. Thank God I don’t have to wait until January to rewatch it in HD like usual.
Yep. Will wait for the DVD set as I have done for the past…5 years now…LOL! Well worth the wait. Since I’m subscribed to HBO I already have Season Five, and the previous four, available on the OnDemand channel for viewing at any time…
Yet I still, I love those DVD sets, with the cover design and the rest of the graphics and art. While DVD and Blu-ray are themselves becoming products of a slowly by-gone era, I don’t know but there is still something special about having a physical copy of the series….
Game of thrones is my favorite show of all time and seasons 1-4 were. Game of thrones is my favorite show of all time and seasons 1-4 were absolutely brilliant, however season 5 has probably been the worst season thus far but that doesn’t mean it’s.
I will wait til March, it will be my birthday present.
Hey what about the history and lore part for season 5 that was amazing! why they didnt keep doing that, shame, shamee!! I hope they do in the next DVD 🙁
I prefer the Histories & Lore motion comics to any behind-the-scenes. This is fantasy and I am not a fan of breaking the fourth wall. I grew up in a town with ample access to production sets — a look at how it’s all created isn’t needed, and worse, ruins the effect of being transported to GRRMs world. Also, I love motion comics in general. They are a great medium.
As far as Dorne goes: bring it, but bring it right. Dorne is an important piece of the puzzle, especially if the audience needs introduction to Prince Oberyn’s challenge, Princess Myrcella’s bad day, Daenerys’ promised marriage, Arianne Martell standing or Nymeria Sand’s visit. And let us not forget there is still a missing Dornish princess at court. (Though if you’re up-to-date with the tele, you know half of these storylines probably become mute.) But I’ve no doubt this will be seen as an unmissable opportunity to make Dorne sexy to viewers. Being HBO, there is a built in assumption that we care about gratuitous sex, and that makes any Dorne storyline appeal to suits, I’m sure. The early days of HBO were all about making porn for head of households. And GoT for tv has waxed and waned with girls with brazillian waxes, group sex scenes not in the book and rape scenes consensual in the book. Don’t get me wrong, I want tv for adults, and I understand taking creative license to make scenes more gritty or disturbing at a glance (for a visual medium), but fantasy fans love story first and foremost. Sex is great when it’s important to the story, otherwise you can take your softcore porn and snuff scenes elsewhere. Bring me Dorne, treachery, posion, sand snakes and sun spears — in story form. I don’t need to see EPs talk on sets full of salon-tanned arms and legs of extras draped over the bodies of swarthy actors portraying Dorne’s extended royal family while production confidentials are revealed. Zzzzzz
So is there any word on a S5 Histories & Lore piece?