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PlayStation Store to discontinue movie and TV purchases and rentals

ManaByte

Member

At SIE, we strive to provide the best entertainment experience for PlayStation fans, and that means evolving our offerings as customer needs change. We’ve seen tremendous growth from PlayStation fans using subscription-based and ad-based entertainment streaming services on our consoles. With this shift in customer behavior, we have decided to no longer offer movie and TV purchases and rentals through PlayStation Store as of August 31, 2021.

When this change takes effect, users can still access movie and TV content they have purchased through PlayStation Store for on-demand playback on their PS4, PS5 and mobile devices. We thank our fans for their continued support, and we look forward to further enhancing the entertainment experience on PlayStation.
 
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Mr Hyde

Member
I rented a couple of movies on the store on PS4. It was quite convenient but since I got a smart tv I got better apps for renting movies that also has much more content. Newer films that releases much sooner and some in 4K UHD. So for me personally this doesn't affect me. I guess people mostly watch Netflix and HBO instead of renting movies these days so I can understand if Sony doesn't want to offer this anymore.
 
There are much better ways to watch movies and tv shows than on a console. Even watching 4k blu ray's on a ps5 and xsx isn't very good.

But again I think the TV stayed on game mode on my C9 which probably made it crappy also 🤷‍♂️
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Surprised especially how much media, blu-ray, subscriptions etc. have been mentioned over the last 10 years.
 

Rayderism

Member
So, even MORE stuff removed from PSN; pics and vids for the games, sorting options, and now movies and shows. What more could they possibly remove?
 

wipeout364

Member
I use the feature on Xbox frequently although I have to admit cross compatibility with windows is why I use it. This will be why Sony will struggle in the long run inability to leverage their services outside of a game box. It’s actually surprising they can’t pull something together with their music publishing and movie business. Probably too much internal rivalry in the company.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
always found it strange they sold/rented movies. surprised it lasted this long tbh lol.

i still do rent/buy movies now and then but i'll do it from somewhere like Apple TV/Amazon because you know they ain't likely to do what Sony just done and pull the rug. of course one day they will probably shut their stores down but that's not happening any time soon with Apple/Amazon.
 
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Derktron

Banned
everybody wants a piece of the streaming pie.
Makes sense, streaming is becoming the new Cable subscription package. That’s how TV started, then next thing you know companies started popping up for these cable subscription and that’s exactly what is happening now.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I never bought movies on my PlayStation. It felt weird having movies tied to a game console. Most of the time when I rent movies I do it from Amazon but I don't really buy movies any more.
 
Meanwhile Xbox delivers UHD content with regional Azure support. I love that service, brilliant picture quality streaming from local servers in my state downunder in Aus. I can understand there are apps/subs for this sort of stuff but surely Sony was making a small profit or could have kept a value add service? I suppose that is the backend difference between Sony and MS; Azure is a beast that stretches far beyond console. My kids use the Xbox films & tv app on PC/surface/Xbox as much as I do, if that's any reference. There is also content I like to own rather than sub and lose/not own, I would have thought Sony could have kept that choice with the gamer/consumer.
 
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Personally I like this. I don't watch movies or shows on my playstation. I only game on it, so this is just less stuff to sift through in the store.
 

rapid32.5

Member
So dumb, I knew buying anime and movies on Ms Store was a smart choice. You never safe with Sony. They remove content whenever they please. No PS1, 2,3 Backwards compatibility either. Digital future with Sony looks unsafe.
 
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sol_bad

Member
I rent my movies through Amazon or Youtube, never used Playstation for that. Not surprised it's going to be honest.
 

jakinov

Member
It makes sense to remove it because in January Sony announced their own streaming service for TV's ( maybe in near future under PS+ or PS Now on PS5)

Sony is bundling its new Bravia Core streaming service into purchases of 2021 Bravia XR TVs. The service streams at up to 80Mbps and lossless 4K UHD resolution, provided you've got the bandwidth to support it.
Two separate decisions. One is for showing the value of their TV and one is opting out of a business that they probbaly werent even in the top five at and a business that’s getting less and less popular.

It doesn’t make sense to do it for that reason because their service has a narrow market and the people that want specific content on demand can no longer pay Sony to do that. Apple and Amazon with their more general and widely accessible services still continue to sell content on demand. Because people buy stuff not available on the service and they actually make good money from it still.
 
So dumb, I knew buying anime and movies on Ms Store was a smart choice. You never safe with Sony. They remove content whenever they please. No PS1, 2,3 Backwards compatibility either. Digital future with Sony looks unsafe.
your prolly 1 out of 500 people that buys anime from console store, tbh its too expensive to keep content like movies shows etc , this was the reason they stopped ps vuew, i feel like the money save will be put into more game content.
 

tillbot8

Banned
Remember going through my UI (never bother normally) out of sheer curiosity and seen that. Thought to myself who the fuck uses that? Well got my anwser!
 

Kokoloko85

Member
So dumb, I knew buying anime and movies on Ms Store was a smart choice. You never safe with Sony. They remove content whenever they please. No PS1, 2,3 Backwards compatibility either. Digital future with Sony looks unsafe.

You get to keep it if you bought it.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
I think they are going to do streaming and maybe add it to PS now.

Streaming all the anime with there movies and tv series is a good choice I guess
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I own quite a bit on PSN. I even have a series or two of American Horror Story on there. Movies like Street Fighter Alpha, Bayonetta anime, Spawn, Freddy vs Jason, and ect. I loved renting movies on there. I even pre-ordered and bought TFA on PSN. I noticed they tried hiding it on their website for years now. Maybe it was an issue with distributing films/TV? They had pretty good sales on movies. I still browse my selection from time to time. I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand my smart TV (like others have mentioned) runs these streaming apps and places like Amazon have pretty good digital stores/apps. I remember renting quite a bit of films on PS3 and how it would play until it had to buffer due to the streaming option. You could either stream it or download the rental on your PS3 console. I hope they don’t shut down any of the game stores on PSN.
 

EDMIX

Member
Good. I was waiting for that to happen. Its like the movies you can buy and rent from Amazon, its like......for why? I'm even happy Amazon Prime finally has a area that is JUST FOR PRIME content. I personally don't buy digital films or rent them, I think streaming for that makes much more sense and I'm not surprised Sony is finally discontinue that stuff.

Kokoloko85 Kokoloko85 Agreed, because I think we've been all wondering exactly what they are going to do with all those companies they bought for the last several years. It has to be for something big.
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
Preparing for this that will offer streaming, purchases and most likely rentals.




Also they already own Crunchyroll.

Sony Crunchyroll

On Wednesday, Sony-owned anime streaming service Funimation agreed to acquire anime streaming service Crunchyroll from AT&T for $1.2 billion. Crunchyroll will give Sony a leg up in a content category that's boomed since Sony acquired Funimation three years ago for less than $150 million.

 

Eternal21

Member
Didn't this happen once before back in 2010? I remember buyinga few TV Series/Movies on PS3 store way back, and then Sony decided they will no longer sell/rent videos from the store. I don't even think I had an option to download them at that point. Learned my lesson, and never rented from them again.
 
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