Harry Potter DVDs and Blu-Rays Going Bye Bye

By the end of the year, Warner Brothers plans to pull all Harry Potter DVDs and Blu-Rays off of store shelves and out of circulation, so if you've been meaning to pick up any of the boy wizard's eight films, you'd better act quickly. This includes all of the films, including the newly-released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and the yet-to-be released Harry Potter: The Complete 8-Film Collection, which hit shelves on November 11th (less than two months before it will be pulled off again). However, digital purchaes will remain untouched, as will all of the Harry Potter videogames.

This sounds crazy, right? Well it's not. There are multiple factors behind it. For starters, physical media just isn't selling like it used to. And by announcing that they're pulling the DVDs and Blu-Rays off shelves, during the holiday season no less, sales should get an absolutely tremendous short-term boost. And later on, many years down the road, Warner Bros. can always re-release the films, which add even more years to their lifespan.

So it's not crazy, at least from a business perspective. Warner Bros. wants to squeeze as much money out of the boy wizard as they can and this is definitely one way to do it. As a big propponent of digital media, this doesn't bother me as much as some. However, as an even bigger fan of film, it does bring one question to mind: what will happen to special features? I need my commentaries and I need'em bad.