With the streaming video business soaring to new heights, at least one of the next-gen consoles has decided to opt out of its own offering. Sony has announced that its PlayStation Store will stop offering rentals and purchases of digital movies and TV shows, beginning August 31, 2021.
The official announcement on the PlayStation Blog, posted by Sony’s head of video business Vanessa Lee on Tuesday morning, cites “ tremendous growth from PlayStation fans using subscription-based and ad-based entertainment streaming services” as the main reason for the change, describing the reasoning as “evolving our offerings as customer needs change.”
The blog does make one important clarification, declaring “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.”