GAME OF THRONES SEASON 2 (Wal-mart)
February 19, 2013
HBO

So, I missed the sales on the first week of HBO's GAME OF THRONES SEASON 2. I refuse to pay more than $40 for the Blu-ray boxset, which, as of this writing, these are selling for $50 or $60. It's too much, even if there is that exclusive Best Buy covers of Greyjoy and Lannisters.

I did manage to pick up the exclusive Targaryen cover on Season 1  and was a little underwhelm.  The cover is nothing more than a slip cover (you know when you buy a DVD or Bluray and sometime they come with a card slip cover?)  The Targaryen has silver tints and the slipcover is a little inferior to the standard cover (which includes raised/embossed and the cover's cardboard is stockier & heavier).  Overall, I think the standard slipcase is a little superior than the exclusive Best Buy thinner slipcases.

I ended up picking up the Wal-Mart version for Season 2, which includes a bonus disc for "Inside the Visual Effects" in a thin Bluray case for $39.99.  The boxset includes a two-disc (double-sided) DVD version and digital version (which you can redeem at Flixster or Vudu and iTunes). The $39.99 price is the cheapest regular (non-sale) price that I've seen, and I've looked around.

Also, I can confirm that neither the DVD or the Digital version includes audio commentaries... but the DVD does have Spanish and French as alternate audio tracks.  Obviously if you pick up the DVD boxset, those will come with commentaries and Polish and whatever other languages are included on the Bluray version  - but for only an extra $5 (the DVD version was priced at $34.99 at Wal-Mart), it just makes sense to me to upgrade to Bluray and get both version.

It's unlikely that I will ever use the DVD discs, but it's just nice to have it in this package. Perhaps if I'm lending the series out to someone, I can just have them borrow the DVDs.  HBO only started adding the DVD with the Bluray in the past year, so I never got the extra DVDs on my Season 1 boxset (although I am pretty sure re-issues of Season 1 since then includes DVD and extra audio commentaries).