Sony today announced that, as of the end of August 2021, the PlayStation Store will no longer offer movies and TV shows to purchase or rent. According to a blog post on the PlayStation website, if you own a movie or show via the Store, you will still be able to watch it, but you won’t be able to buy anything new.
As for why it’s discontinuing, the announcement implies the reason is that we’re no longer so interested in purchasing individual movies or shows, because so many of us have access to streaming subscription services. Specifically, it says “We’ve seen tremendous growth from PlayStation fans using subscription-based and ad-based entertainment streaming services on our consoles.” It makes sense: If no one’s buying movies, there’s no need to keep the option on the Store.
Just to recap, if you own a PlayStation console, the media apps you can add and watch content from include Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Crunchyroll, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, Plex, Pluto TV, Spotify, Twitch, and good ol’ YouTube. Granted, most of those cost money to subscribe to, but on balance it’d probably cost more to buy or rent movies individually from the Store. Even if there’s one movie or show not available on any of those services that you absolutely must have, Amazon or Google Play might be a better place to look than the PlayStation Store.
So what happens if you have purchased movies or shows from the PlayStation Store? Sony says you’ll still have access to them after August, with “on-demand playback on their PS4, PS5 and mobile devices.” And if there are movie and shows you think you can only find on the Store, then you have until the end of August to buy them and have them for good.
Source: PlayStation Blog
