PlayStation Store Will No Longer Sell Or Rent Movies And TV Shows After August

Did you know that you could buy or rent movies and TV shows through the PlayStation Store? Well, if you didn't, that knowledge will be short-lived, because Sony is discontinuing the purchase and rental of movies and TV series through the video game console's store, starting in August.

Sony announced in a blog post today that it will be discontinuing the purchases of movies and TV shows on its digital store starting August 31, 2021. According to Sony's post, the main reason behind this decision was the increased use of subscription and ad-based streaming services among PlayStation users, with services like Netflix, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime Video.

"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," Sony said in its post.

But for those few who have been using the PlayStation Store to buy and rent their movies, Sony confirms that anyone who has previously purchased movies or TV content through their store before the August cut-off date will have access to that content after the changes go into effect. On-demand playback will be available on PS4, PS5, and mobile devices.

As someone who uses a PS4 to access my streaming services and rarely ventures into the PlayStation Store, this news comes as no surprise to me. The PlayStation Store never appeared to be a popular platform to directly buy or rent titles, especially with the abundance of streaming platforms out there. While on paper it makes sense for a multimedia company like Sony — which produces movies and TV alongside music and games — to offer the same range of content in its digital store, it's clear that most people browsing the PlayStation Store were there to buy games. With this change, perhaps the PlayStation Store's interface will become less cluttered and easier to navigate starting in September.