Sony is removing access to hundreds of films and TV shows on its PlayStation Store service subsequent month, meaning users that earlier paid for titles like Paddington and The Hunger Games will no longer be able to watch them.
According to legal notices published on the two regional sites, the shutdown impacts users in Germany and Austria and covers films orchestrated by StudioCanal.
The shutdown will arrive on August 31st, just one year after Sony discontinued film and TV show buys through its digital Store. At the time, Sony said its customers would still be able to access previously bought content. Notices posted on the PlayStation website responsibility “evolving license agreements with content providers” (thru machine translation) for the change and state that purchased content will be deducted from customers’ video libraries.
The change impacts 314 titles in Germany and 137 in Austria. Affected titles include John Wick, La La Land, Chicken Run, Logan Lucky, Shaun the Sheep Movie, Saw, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s unclear whether refunds will be delivered to affected customers.
StudioCanal movies and TV shows in Germany and Austria will vanish next month.
While we’ve gotten used to the idea that TV shows and films can evaporate from streaming services over time, leaving them inaccessible to subscribers, it’s much rarer to see it happen on services that let you buy titles to own digitally. That’s not to say it’s unheard of; when Flixster Video shut down, Pocket-Lint reported that some titles weren’t compatible with the Google Play migration process meant to allow UK customers to continue accessing them. Moreover, Apple’s use of the word “buy” for digital titles that it reserves the request to revoke access to has even been challenged lawfully in the past.
The shutdown serves as a vital reminder that even when you “buy” a label digitally, your ownership often relies on a retailer continuing to exist and having the correct licensing deals. If you want to guarantee requests forever, then physical purchases are still your best bet — although not always.
Studiocanal SAS (previously known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal+ Distribution, Canal Plus, Canal+ D.A., Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image, also understood as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that holds the third-largest film library in the world. The business is a unit of the Canal+ Group, owned by Vivendi.
The company in 1988 by Pierre Lescure, is a spin-off of the Canal+ pay-TV network. The original function focused on French and European productions but made strategic deals with American production companies, such as Carolco Pictures. StudioCanal’s most notable shows from its early years include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, JFK, Cliffhanger, Under Siege, Basic Instinct, Free Willy, and the original Stargate movie. In those days, it was understood as either Le Studio Canal+ or simply Canal+.
Other films the company invested in include U-571, Bully, and Bridget Jones’s Diary. StudioCanal also supported the last third of David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive. StudioCanal also funded French-language movies, such as Brotherhood of the Wolf (which evolved into the sixth highest-grossing French-language film in the United States) and Intimate Strangers (which is being remade by Hollywood-based Paramount Pictures). However, the biggest box office clashes for StudioCanal have been Basic Instinct, which grossed US$352 million; Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which grossed US$519 million; and The Tourist, which grossed US$278 million worldwide.
StudioCanal obtained film libraries from studios that either evolved defunct or merged with it over the years. Consequently, the company’s library is one of the biggest in the world, with over 6,000 titles.
The PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital media store available to users of Sony’s PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 game consoles via the PlayStation Network.
The Store offers a range of downloadable content for purchase and free of charge. Available content includes full games, add-on content, playable demos, themes, and game/movie trailers.
The Store is accessible through an icon on the XrossMediaBar on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. It is done thru Dynamic Menu on the PlayStation 4 and an icon on the LiveArea on the PlayStation Vita. The service is also available online through the Sony Entertainment Network website.
A master account is required to access the PlayStation Store. A log of all previously purchased items, known as “Download List,” records each PlayStation Store account’s complete download activity. A guest user can use their master account’s Download List to download free content or to purchase content on another console; however, a single account can only be used on up to two consoles. It was five, but as of November 2011, Sony reduced this to two. In addition, the most recent firmware must be installed on the console to access the PlayStation Store.
Each master account is associated with an online virtual “wallet” to which funds can be added. This wallet is then debited when a purchase is made from the Store. Money can be added to the wallet through different payment systems, although some are not available in all countries.
All PlayStation store purchases are made in the user’s local currency using a ‘wallet’ system whereby funds are added to the wallet. It is either in set denominations or an amount dictated by the price of the current transaction—then debited from the account’s wallet when the user makes a purchase; funds added to the PS Store are non-refundable.
Users can add funds to their wallets in several ways, the most common of which is by credit or debit card. Users in numerous regions can also buy PlayStation Network Cards or Tickets in set denominations from retailers, including supermarkets or video game stores. These funds are saved on the PlayStation Store when the user enters the unique 12-digit code located on the card into PlayStation Store.
Nintendo themselves later embraced this currency system for their succeeding eShop. The Store’s account, nevertheless, is region-locked and generally only tolerates credit cards billed in and PlayStation Network Cards purchased from the same country selected during the registration process, which cannot be changed afterward.