Oh Good, The Leprechaun Films Are On Steam

Good news, everyone: the entire back catalogue of Leprechaun movies is now available on Steam - including Leprechaun 4: Lost In Space. Truly, this is the best of all possible worlds. The first one's even got a young Jennifer Aniston in, and she went on to make an infinite number of romantic comedies whose posters depicted her leaning against her handsome co-star, so you know it must be good.

Better (or not) news than that if you're American: Valve getting into bed with Lionsgate means you can also rent or buy stuff like the Hunger Games, Twilight and Dredd films via Steam. But not if you're in the UK. It's rubber-faced Leprechauns all the way for you, sunshine.

I have no great desire to watch a Hunger Game or a dead-eyed R-Patz offering, but it is depressing to see that even the mighty Valve are as beholden to archaic and pointless regional licensing limitations as Netflix and everyone else. The UK catalogue has a handful of things in addition to four Leprechaun films, but I suspect the rental market for Deck The Halls or Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland is going to be... limited.

The US, meanwhile, has over a hundred films (some listings for which you can see via the magic of Google caching), including Actual Good Ones such as Escape From New York, American Psycho, Dredd and Reservoir Dogs. Shame, shame.

I remain mildly confused by Steam's movie-flogging plan, I must confess. There's a visible lack of a solid gold reason to buy your movies on this rather than via a service such as iTunes, Google Play or Amazon, which at least allows you to watch your fillum on a mobile device or TV box too. I guess these things - if you like in a place which can buy/rent them - can be watched via Steam's VRtastic Desktop Theater mode, so maybe it's all part of elaborate groundwork for an increasingly unlikely goggle-based future. But really, my vote's just going for 'because it's something else to sell.'