The news will not make those concerned laugh (just like those who are still unaware of it), and for good reason it indirectly affects your wallet. Sony recently announced some rather surprising and dubious news: certain digital content purchased on the PlayStation Store will soon disappear from the library of users who have purchased it. The problem is that originally these purchases were supposed to “be the property of their lifetime owners”. Finally… That’s what many thought until then.
Paid but not earned
With its increasing and, to say the least, rapid democratization, digital content is obviously more or less regularly the target of controversies of varying intensity. And this is not the least. If users of the PlayStation Store have sometimes become accustomed to buying a lot of content on this online platform, from simple games to their DLCs, even including the rental of films or series, some may be well chilled.
While Sony announced in March 2021 that it was withdrawing from the VOD market before implementing this decision on August 31, buyers of series and films on the PS Store had until little information about the future. of their purchases. The Japanese publisher immediately announced that all film and television content purchased on this platform would remain accessible in the libraries of those concerned. Starting from this principle, the assumption seemed obvious to many: “If I bought it, I keep it ad vitam æternam!“. Logic !
Except that here, probably Studio Canal decided otherwise and it is not Sony who seems willing to fight against this decision. Thus, from Wednesday August 31, 2022, all Studio Canal films and series purchased through the PlayStation Store will be completely removed from the platform, including those present in user libraries.
“To take back is to steal”?
This surprising and annoying news was mentioned by PlayStation Germany which explains that it is the evolution of the licensing agreements between Sony and Studio Canal which is at the origin. Basically, the contract that linked the two giants is not renewed and it is the customer who wins in the end. If this decision currently concerns only two countries in the world, Germany and Austria, no one knows to date if it will be intended to extend to other territories, in particular French-speaking countries.
In total, more than 300 films and series could disappear overnight from the library of many French-speaking users in the coming weeks. Well, if the subject of the ownership of digital cinematographic content may seem to be second class for the players, it nevertheless brings back to the table a subject for the least important: what about all the games bought in the same way? , but also the time invested in them and the tens (sometimes even hundreds or thousands in the case of MMORPGs in particular) of euros spent for their benefit?
While some companies reimburse certain content rendered inaccessible for various reasons, others seem to have far fewer scruples. It also raises the issue of online services whose servers go out of maintenance after a few years, such as recently with the servers for dozens of Ubisoft’s “old games” shutting down soon, leaving users of those games with a content yet paid but accessible only in a truncated version of that originally paid.
ubisoft
While it’s rather common for past games to be disabled over time, the news of such an event is always a pretty hard pill to digest for the latest players of those. And precisely, Ubisoft has just announced the end of support for a dozen of them.