Starting next month, Sony’s PlayStation Store will remove access to hundreds of Studiocanal movies that customers in Germany and Austria previously purchased.
The decision comes a year after Sony’s PlayStation group stopped offering movie, TV show purchases and even rentals from August 31st, 2021, citing the rise of streaming-video services.
At the time, Sony assured customers that they, “Can still access movie and TV content they have purchased through PlayStation Store for on-demand playback on their PS4, PS5 and mobile devices.” Unfortunately, they didn’t mean forever.
PlayStation took to its website to post notices of the impending removal of StudioCanal content for its German and Austrian customers.
“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,” the notice read. “We greatly appreciate your continued support.”
It’s unclear whether PlayStation Store will refund customers for their purchases of movies that they’ve paid for but are unavailable. A Sony rep declined to provide any details on that and reps from StudioCanal for the Germany-Austria region are yet to respond to the comment request.
The list of Studiocanal-distributed titles that will be removed includes 314 in Germany and 137 in Austria.
These include Studiocanal-financed films like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; the two Paddington movies; Non-Stop; and Shaun the Sheep Movie. In addition, the titles that will no longer be available to PlayStation Store customers in Germany and Austria include multiple Lionsgate movies, including the Hunger Games, John Wick and the Saw series.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
