PlayStation Store to cease movie, TV purchases and rentals in August

It’s officially time to ditch the downloads, says Sony. Starting Aug. 31, the PlayStation store will no longer offer purchases and rentals for shows.

This change is due to consumers increasingly embracing “subscription-based and ad-based entertainment streaming services” on Sony’s consoles, the company announced in an official blog post. Users who have previously acquired content before Aug. 31 will still hold onto it and can be played on the PS4, PS5, and mobile devices.

Besides saving space on your memory disk to accommodate Call of Duty, the prevalence of streaming platforms makes it unlikely that users will even miss downloaded on-demand content. Gaming content lovers can fall back on Twitch or YouTube, while subscription services like Netflix, Disney+, and Crunchyroll are readily available on the PlayStation Store.

Sony is one of the first companies to commit to such a change. Other digital distribution platforms such as Google Play and Microsoft Store will continue to have these services, though it’s possible that Sony’s early conversion might swiftly affect a domino chain of changes.