Sony has confirmed that it will no longer offer movie purchases and rentals through the PlayStation Store on PS4 and PS5 as of August 31, 2021.
PS Store to discontinue movies
Just a few months after launching the Apple TV app, with the complete iTunes movie library, on PS4 and PS5, Sony PlayStation is getting out of the VOD (video-on-demand) business.
The company has confirmed that as of August 31, 2021, it will no longer offer movie and TV purchases and rentals through the PlayStation Store on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, citing a shift in consumer behavior towards subscription services.
- "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," said Vanessa Lee, Head of Video Business, SIE.
Goodbye, PlayStation Video store
Sony was already lagging behind direct VOD competitors such as Apple TV, Google Play, Microsoft Store, and Vudu. PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 are not very good media players either as detailed in our extensive PlayStation 5 review.
Also read: Full list: 4K HDR & Atmos movies on Apple TV (iTunes)
Sony added that "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" after August 2021. However, the company did not specify for how long users will be able to access purchased content.
- Source: PlayStation
