Sony to discontinue selling non-gaming content in PlayStation Store

Sony today announced that it would stop selling non-gaming in the PlayStation Store from this summer. That means that as of August 31st,  PlayStation users will not be able to buy or rent movies or TV content in the store.

In a blog post the company put the decision down to a “shift in customer behavior” with users choosing to get content via subscription-based and ad-based entertainment services. The move comes alongside Sony’s shift to Android-powered TVs, which use Google Play video stores, rather than a home-grown Sony store. So this decision was likely taken across the whole business.

The advantage for games companies is that a PlayStation user looking for entertainment is no longer going to be tempted away by a different kind of media . So now the PlayStation Store is entirely the industry’s domain. Although of course the PlayStation itself remains a multimedia device in terms of Blu-ray playback and access to services such as Netflix and iPlayer.

It will be interesting to see if the PlayStation remains wholly movie free, or whether the move then allows for Google Play or Amazon Prime to start selling on the platform, but we’d doubt it.

“At SIE, 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.

“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. We thank our fans for their continued support, and we look forward to further enhancing the entertainment experience on PlayStation.”