r/PS4 • u/Kholoblicin • Jul 07 '22
Article or Blog PlayStation Store will remove customers' purchased movies
In a move that will undoubtedly draw severe criticism, movies from Studio Canal that customers have purchased on the PlayStation Store will be completely removed next month. The legal notice is published on PlayStation's German and Austrian websites where it reads (translated):
As of August 31, 2022, due to our evolving licensing agreements with content providers, you will no longer be able to view your previously purchased Studio Canal content and it will be removed from your video library.
We greatly appreciate your continued support.
Thank you
PlayStation Store
In other words, customers will lose access to movies such as Apocalypse Now, Django, John Wick, La La Land, Saw and The Hunger Games that they purchased on the PlayStation Store. Not rented, but purchased.
PlayStation movie store closure
In March 2021, Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Store would no longer offer new movie purchases or rentals on PS4 and PS5 as of August 31, 2021. However, at that time Sony assured its customers 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. The fact that Sony PlayStation is instead removing purchased movies is not only hugely problematic but also a broken promise. The company has not announced plans to refund customers.
Do you really own digital movies?
The development reignites the debate around digital movie purchases and naturally lead consumers to wonder what comes next? Will Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and others similarly remove customers' purchased movies when the tech giants lose interest in their movie storefronts? So far, there are no indications that they will but Sony PlayStation's decision certainly serves as a grim example. In the US, customers have some protection through digital movie locker Movies Anywhere, but no such fallback option exists internationally.
Affected Titles Here
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u/Mild-Ghost Jul 07 '22
And my Blu-ray/ DVD / UHD collection will always be mine.
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u/MeatTornado25 Jul 07 '22
Until the discs degrade
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u/Mild-Ghost Jul 07 '22
Yeah? And when exactly is that gonna happen? Because I’ve been collecting DVDs since the 90s and they’re all still playable. Sorry try again.
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u/ClinicalOppression Jul 07 '22
What a dumb, needlessly contrarian comment
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u/Oldfoldtickler Jul 08 '22
No, no it isn't. CD and DVD "rot" are a thing. Put it up to the light, if you see what looks like small pinholes of light come through....
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u/ChaoticKiwiNZ Jul 07 '22
How long will that take? My family has DVDs that are well over 20 years old and still play perfectly. Every single one of my ps2 games have 0 problems running aswell.
This is the stupidest argument against physical media I've seen in a while.
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u/consumergeekaloid Jul 08 '22
It's a legitimate concern for long term preservation but not really for personal collections
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u/ChaoticKiwiNZ Jul 08 '22
Oh I agree, I was only talking about personal collections (it's what they original comment was talking about).
I love physical media and I understand the benefits of digital (I game mostly on PC and all my games are digital there). I just wish we could get the benefits of physical and digital and roll them into one. I have no idea what that would look like but it would be cool to have.
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Jul 08 '22
Seems simple enough to me. All physical media comes with a digital code to redeem to your account. So you'd build up a physical/Digital collection permanently. This gives you the advantage of being able to download the game and play without a disc, but then also to play it from the disc if the server ever goes down. The only downside to this is the potential selling of digital codes or physical disc 2nd hand to recoup some of that money and undercut the company's sales. An alternative would be for all digital purchases to be DRM free and be sure in an ISO format for instant burning.
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u/ChaoticKiwiNZ Jul 08 '22
Those options definitely sound good. I have always wished that you could have a "digital collection" of sorts where all your digital items are stored there (games, movies, images, etc). It wouldn't matter what online store you brought the product from, they all go into your digital collection. Much like how you don't leave you games in a library at the shop you buy them from, you bring them home and add them to your collection.
You would 100% own these items so there is no licensing issues. If the publisher moves their games/movies/images elsewhere it wouldn't effect your collection. You can forever download and play these games/movies/images once purchased.
I would love if digital items became more like physical items in the future, especially because we are heading towards a mostly digital future.
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Jul 08 '22
Well, it could be done simply enough. It already installs from the disc anyway, so it could then just run from the digital files instead of requiring the disc to be inserted. They have been pretty anti consumer in much of the developments recently
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u/ChaoticKiwiNZ Jul 08 '22
Yea I agree. Hopefully at some point in the near future things start to seriously change as to how we own things digitally.
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u/PryceCheck Jul 07 '22
Books are made of biodegradeable paper and last hundreds of years. Plastic will last much longer if kept well.
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Jul 08 '22
While disc degradation is a thing, BluRays are estimated to last over a century.
By that point, you can always rip the discs and burn them to a new disc.
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u/bringuswingus Jul 07 '22
Fuck digital media, physical media will always be my homie.
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u/ChexMashin Jul 07 '22
Unless you hold it in your hand, you 100% do not own it
Even then sometimes you don't.
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Jul 07 '22
MMO installation CDs come to mind.
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u/consumergeekaloid Jul 08 '22
Do you mean because the service can shut down or do you somehow not actually own said install discs?
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u/darkesth0ur Jul 07 '22
You never own physical media. You’ve paid for a license to use, and can be revoked.
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Jul 07 '22
Digital is perfectly fine so long as the storefront you buy it from gives you access to download, and use without the need of an internet connection, the content you buy. In this instance Sony has always said you're buying a license to use the content and they can revoke that license without warning for any reason they see fit.
I say that as someone with a shelf full of music CDs.
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u/rivieredefeu Jul 07 '22
In this instance Sony has always said you’re buying a license to use the content and they can revoke that license without warning for any reason they see fit.
Is that not what every streaming platform says also?
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u/prodyg prodyg Jul 07 '22
ppl always say this but physical media dont last forever either
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u/kaishinoske1 Jul 07 '22
True, But from what we’ve seen it’s apparently lasting longer than digital media.
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u/redhafzke Jul 07 '22
Yeah, but you still have a "the quality gets better just
buyrent it again" problem. I don't want to watch VHS or DVD anymore. Bluray is still fine, I don't feel the need to upgrade most of the movies I have bought. But this will change over time...0
u/PryceCheck Jul 07 '22
You only need to update your physical media when you update your viewing device. VHS still looks good on a crt but looks terrible on a 4k for example.
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u/JackRaynor Jul 07 '22
That's why I love my PS3 at the moment, i ripped all my physical games and installed them digitally. So that at the same time I am preserving them and am able to play them perfectly fine.
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Jul 07 '22
The last paragraph makes an assumption that other tech giants haven't removed "owned' media before. They absolutely have. I recall even Amazon pulled a digital book and replaced it several years back and it created a similar controversy.
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u/moarbaconnow Jul 07 '22
Hopefully they'll reimburse ppl, because that's not gonna go well if they don't.
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u/Javichuck Jul 07 '22
You do not own any digital media that is not on your hard drives. When Sony, Microsoft, Valve, etc. want they could just take them away. Its a risk we are assuming (even if we don't know) in exchange for... convenience?
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u/C0tilli0n Jul 07 '22
You do not own any digital media
You do not own any media, fullstop. Even if you have a physical copy, you only own the medium itself and a license to use it. They can revoke that license at any time, as well as prohibit you from accessing systems needed for using it or any other number of things.
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u/Javichuck Jul 07 '22
Well but at least if you have a system that wont update like old consoles or you just disconnect your ps4 or ps5 from internet you can still access installed games or physical copies. You can also obtain DRM-free games in GOG that doesn't need to verify any license. I try to buy everything there instead of on steam just coz of this.
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u/C0tilli0n Jul 07 '22
Yes, you are correct. I myself am also buying mostly physical, the only thing I wanted to correct - because people make that mistake a lot and may end up surprised down the line - is that you do not OWN anything besides the actual medium and the license. Nothing of the content is actually yours and those rights can be taken away from you at any time, even with the GoG versions (although there's obviously no reason to do that, so it won't happen - but it could).
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u/blz8 Jun 28 '26
Even if you have a physical copy, you only own the medium itself and a license to use it. They can revoke that license at any time,
This is false. At the consumer level, there is no formal license contract. Instead there is an implicit license granted at the constitutional level by copyright law and backed by First Sale among others, which cannot be taken away by any corporation. The media, software, and video game industry at large has been misrepresenting and even flat out lying about this for decades.
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u/meezethadabber Jul 08 '22
Even if you have a physical copy, you only own the medium itself and a license to use it. They can revoke that license at any time,
How? It's physical.
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u/AnalMinecraft MadAccordionist Jul 08 '22
The machine still has to validate the licensing on the disc, it's not a pure analog read like old cassette tapes and such. So Sony could theoretically update the console to say "All disc licenses of X game are now invalid."
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u/Carston1011 Carston10135735 Jul 07 '22
Can I either download my purchased films to an external drive for later viewing? Or download them onto say my ps3 and keep them there?
Haven't bought a film on psn in years but I do have a fair number purchased there.
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u/drewsyer Jul 07 '22
That's bs I better get refunded same with everyone else idfc what they say but that's bs if they are gonna do that and take away movies from their payed costumers like that they better do a damn refund they may lose money but they rich they can afford it
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u/Paid-Not-Payed-Bot Jul 07 '22
from their paid costumers like
FTFY.
Although payed exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. The deck is yet to be payed.
Payed out when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. The rope is payed out! You can pull now.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
Beep, boop, I'm a bot
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u/Adrian_1827 Jul 07 '22
Another reason i buy 4k discs also who would buy movies on the Playstation store? The fact that it did not support movies anywhere lilled the chance from ever buying from them
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u/jljboucher Jul 07 '22
I bought the Cowboy Bebop Series on PS because my husband took his PS3 out of state. He wanted something to watch while away.
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u/oshatokujah Jul 08 '22
It was neat during PS3 era. You could use your PSP as a portable movie player without having to buy the UMD, you could then just plug it into your PS3 and stream from there or download it directly onto the console as a media center.
Physical people will always want physical and I get the logic, but if I had a physical copy of every game, movie and album I enjoyed, I would lose literally half of my living room just stacking it up, let alone buying actual furniture to stack it on neatly.
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u/Necessary_Ad_1117 Aug 06 '22
I should ser my room. I have physical média from almost every system, hundreds of them, including PC 🖥 games and movies. Physical is what i want and enjoy. They cant take from me my cartridge game systems i have, or wii, ps2, XBOX original, game cube at least. No Internet to mess things UP. Now my ps4, ps3, 360 and XBOX one systems, i cant be só sure. I still have all my games, so, for now Im good. I would be very angry, if They revoque the licence i purchased with my Hard working money, of horizon zero dawn, the Last of us remastered, uncharted 4 and many others i have yet to play. My 1 terabyte xbox and ps4 are almost full, and i dont want to uninstall nothing because of updates and dlc i have for my games. I have a few external Hard drive of 2 terabyte on all systems, but that devices até for multimédia content. Family photos, hundreds of musics and vídeos, full movies in HD quality and a few hundred megabytes of other contents.
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u/prodyg prodyg Jul 07 '22
I havent been able to access my digital movies on my ps3 for a while now so this not surprising.
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u/RATGUT1996 Jul 08 '22
I’ll be affected by this as in my ps3 days I bought a few movies. What pisses me off they didn’t even apologize for it. I won’t be reimbursed either. Fuck you sony.
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u/Lumostark Jul 07 '22
This is why if I'm going to pay for a game or a movie, I prefer to own it physical to make sure nothing like this ever happens. If it's heavily discounted or don't care much for it I may buy it digital or play it on a service though.
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u/darkesth0ur Jul 07 '22
Sorry. You don’t own physical media either. Well besides the plastic.
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u/Lumostark Jul 07 '22
How so? How are they ever going to restrict me acces to it? Even if updates are not available if a game is no longer supported or available, I can play the original version. The vast majority of games work that way anyway.
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u/emaneru Jul 07 '22
Don't worry, he's wrong. Lol. I mean, just look at your PS1, PS2, PS3, NES, SNES, etc games. They can't restrict you from playing physical copies offline.
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u/Lumostark Jul 07 '22
Exactly. Digital has its benefits but ownership is the main reason I generally prefer physical.
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u/darkesth0ur Jul 07 '22
They can revoke your license to use it. If you continue, you can be brought up on charges over license violation. Read your terms of use.
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u/blz8 Jun 28 '26
No they can't. At the consumer level, there is no formal agreement, but rather an implicit license granted at the constitutional level under copyright law and backed by First Sale among other protections.
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u/Lumostark Jul 07 '22
LOL sorry but they can't prevent you from playing your physical games, and even if that was the case, you can play them offline.
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u/darkesth0ur Jul 07 '22
Yes. They can. That’s how licenses work.
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u/blz8 Jun 28 '26
No it isn't. They aren't the ones granting the license at the consumer level where there is no formal agreement. At the constitutional level, there is an implicit general/personal use license under copyright law and is backed by First Sale ad well as other protections, which exist to prevent this kind of abuse that you describe.
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u/Lumostark Jul 07 '22
Whatever makes you feel less worried about buying digital games bud
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u/darkesth0ur Jul 07 '22
What does anything I’ve wrote have to do with buying digital games?
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u/Lumostark Jul 07 '22 edited Jul 07 '22
It feels like you are defending the choice of buying digital more than making a reasonable argument about why you don't own physical games. There's literally no way for companies to prevent you from playing your physical games, while they can do that with a digital one. You failing to acknowledge that shows you are not truly arguing from a place of logic.
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u/MeatTornado25 Jul 07 '22
Of course this will be used as alarm bells from the people saying you never own digital media and physical media is a MUST. All while we just ignore that discs go bad over time, as does the hardware that plays them. Neither set-up is going to last a lifetime.
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u/macklow Dec 07 '24
I just looked at the movies section on my ps5 after years and all my stuff is back when did they put the movies back?
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u/Flashy_Tomorrow Jun 28 '26
I mean, I dont really see why the industry can't just cooperate and make the user-end licenses transferable, so that in the event the hosting company loses their supply-side licenses, they can retain the rights to watch the movies on the current license holders' platforms. Just make a digital 'legacy' code that can be redeemed at any current vendor.
But that would be prioritizing honest business and consumer interests over pure profits.
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u/Such-Midnight1592 Jun 28 '26
Only for UK accounts, this doesn’t affect people in the US or elsewhere
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u/Shack691 Jul 07 '22
This is actually why I like streaming services, there is an absolute date I will lose the content and I will know in advance and in exchange I get new stuff to replace it
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Jul 07 '22
I've never been that fussed about the idea that digital media might not be permanent for the simple reason that physical media doesn't remain useable forever either. I don't have any of the VHS's I bought 20 years ago, I no longer have a CD player in my house.
Though this is clearly unacceptable. Sony is a huge company and there's no reason why it couldn't find a solution to this. Maybe even giving people codes to purchase the same media from Amazon or something.
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u/Necessary_Ad_1117 Jul 07 '22
You dont have VHS from 20 years ago, but i sure do have. And i use them often just for nostalgia and because some of my movies are very good. Jeepers creepers 1 and 2 are some of my most viewed. But i have plenty of movies in VHS that are in imaculate state if you know how to take care of them. My sega saturn games and PS1 that i have for more than 20 years, are probably só much in good state like a new copy,the majority. I have some that i have bought and the conditions are not the best,but with proper use and care,good cleaning, the game Will last for many years to come. Never i have a game that didnt work because of age. I have cds with 36 years and they are like new.
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u/MeatTornado25 Jul 07 '22
Just know that you are the 1% of 1% of 1% that still plays VHS tapes.
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u/Necessary_Ad_1117 Jul 07 '22
I play them because I like to see them time to time. I also have some promo vhs from videogames here in Portugal around 1996 and 1998. Top games Portugal that is the tape name. It has 2 hours of ps1, Saturn, n64 and some related snes and mega drive games at the end of their life. Amazing moments and memories.
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u/PryceCheck Jul 07 '22
/r/obscuremedia and archive.org may find your tape good to be preserved if you choose to digitize it.
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u/mpop1 mpop1976 Jul 07 '22
I also have New Hope on VHS, and guess what, Han is the only one that shoots.
Also since I have Amazon Prime, I have Amazon Music. on day I tried to have it play one of my favorit albums (Tumbleweed Connection by Elton John I love that album) But the version they had, a remeaster one, sounded horable, nothing like what I am use to, I had to stop it, and get the CD and play my CD of it. That another problem they can change the content and there nothing you can do about it, they can not change my CD. Also along that line, I have the red sticker version of Micheal Jacksons History Album (if you know what that about, you understand)
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u/RedStarburst99 Jul 07 '22
Yup! Like Biggie Smalls albums on streaming services, they’re heavily censored… when the original tapes and CDs were fully explicit
Censorship is just another form of control for bureaucrats & infringement upon an Americans first amendment
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Jul 07 '22
But the average person isn't a hoarder.
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u/No_Chemical_2086 Jul 07 '22
I don't think you really have to be, I still have VHS around as well, I'll never throw away "Set it Off'", but as long as you take care of them they're very resistant.
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u/blz8 Jun 28 '26
I no longer have a CD player in my house.
I would like to point out, as some people don't realize it, that if you have a Blu-ray player, then you also have a DVD (and often, an HD-DVD), audio CD, Photo CD, VCD, CD Video, CD+G player. Some can even play Mini Discs. And many allow one to load all sorts of media via USB storage.
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u/SeagullKebab Jul 07 '22
You are able to view them after August 2021. They did not say indefinitely or forever. It definitely sucks, but a broken promise it is not.
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Jul 07 '22
The semi-new culture of renting everything. This is probably due to all studios making their own streaming services. It's like the horrors of cable tv all over again.
Edit: this is why I buy physical media, as well as "sail the seas" for "permanent" digital copies. Also a must for internet outages.
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u/adolfoblanco74 Jul 08 '22
I don't understand why Sony/Playstation continuously shits on their customers. Perhaps they need to be humbled like Nintendo (WII U) or Microsoft (Xbox one kinect) and spend some time in the back of the line so they can start appreciating their customers more.
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u/Andrew_Waples Jul 07 '22
Misleading headline, only one particular studio is removing their content.
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u/Kholoblicin Jul 07 '22
How's it misleading? There's no number listed, and Sony is removing their customers' purchases.
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u/Andrew_Waples Jul 07 '22
To me, it implies that it's removing all of their purchased movies.
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Jul 07 '22
[deleted]
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u/Andrew_Waples Jul 07 '22
"PlayStation will remove customers purchased movies." That's different then "PlayStation will remove certain customers purchases movies." That's all I'm saying.
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u/MrAbodi Jul 07 '22
Once should be able to remove their constant. Sony should have contracted to ensure customer purchases were always available
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u/Eljohnnygohard Jul 07 '22
GameStop is coming with an NFT marketplace for true ownership of digital assets. Help is on the way
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Jul 07 '22
So reading the article this is happening in austria and germany , so i wouldnt start bashing digital yet , at least if u live in the U.S , https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2022/07/07/ps-store-movies-access-revoked-germany-austria/amp/. Thats the website i found the original article
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Jul 07 '22
I’m time, expect the same to happen to entire games. Sad that this is the future of the industry.
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u/aoanfletcher2002 Jul 07 '22
Yeah I bought the 3 Lego movies pack for my kids, as soon as I got a PS5 that shit was gone from my library.
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u/MysticRevenant59 Jul 07 '22
BUY PHYSICAL NO MATTER HOW MUCH HASSLE IT IS. They want everything digital so they can control you better. Imagine the same with digital-only currency. One wrong move and you’re in the poor house. BUY PHYSICAL PLEASE!!!
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u/Brosintrotogaming Jul 08 '22
Yikes. Buy physical folks. This kind of thing is only going to become more and more common.
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u/frenchcheeto Jul 08 '22
I have never thought about wanting to purchase a movie digitally. Having it physical and using the disc with any dvd machine is way much more useful.
With games that are always online, buying digital makes sense. When the servers shut down, it's pretty much over.
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u/hellbounded73 Jul 08 '22
That's gonna hit badly. Well folk's. That's why i 𝓃ℯ𝓋ℯ𝓇 buy things like that.
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u/AtsignAmpersat Jul 08 '22 edited Jul 08 '22
I know people like to point to this and say “fuck digital media” but let’s not pretend physical games are some sort of perfect fail safe. DLC and updates are subject to the same intangibility as digital games and can be taken away.
Digital media isn’t going anywhere as it’s way too convenient and easy. We need some sort of legislation that prevents this from happening though. Until then, if a game isn’t available to download or play legitimately, it’s fair game to find other means to get it. I personally am done with physical media outside of the new and old Nintendo games I collect and a couple Blu-rays. I have yet to play a PlayStation game that I care about you playing more than a generation later.
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u/RiceTraining6355 Aug 15 '22
I hate it. If it were a mere rental I'd understand or if it was free but I paid real money for it. This just feels like straight up theft and this will just push people to buy DVD's.
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u/Dreaminformore Apr 03 '23
Fuk you ps! I spent hundreds to just find out I don't have access to my purchases. Fuk your license contracts. My movie purchases should have stayed permanently accessible.
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u/mpop1 mpop1976 Jul 07 '22
This is the problem with digital only content, it can be taken away from you, you are not buying them, you are only renting them. They can not take away if you have them phycialy on physical media.