Sony’s announcement that makes you reconsider DVDs or Blu-Ray discs: why not to trust digital purchases

Very many people who have immeasurable collections of Blu-Ray discs or DVDs in 2022 seem odd. Why would you buy your movies on disc in 2022 when you can find them on Netflix, HBO, Prim Video, Apple TV+ and more. At worst, you buy them digitally and keep them in an online collection. But the reality is significantly more complex than you might think.

When it comes to content purchased in digital format, over the years, there have been several companies that have sold you your favorite movies with the promise that they will be yours forever. Not so. Several services that offered you movie and series purchases have gone out of business. Sony hasn’t gone bankrupt, but at the same time, they’re leaving you without the movies and series you bought from the PlayStation Store.

Nothing beats a movie on disc

Until August 2021, Sony used to sell movies through the PlayStation Store, the same online store where you buy your favorite PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and older PS3 games. Predictably, having bought a movie from Sony, in your heart of hearts, you figured it would be yours for life. This is the definition of the verb to buy.

The Japanese, sadly, feel differently. That’s why Sony has announced that it’s cutting off your access to a whole host of movies that, until yesterday, you could buy. Most of them belong to French distributor Studiocanal, but the list also includes Lionsgate productions. To give you an idea of what you might be missing, we’re talking Paddington 1 and 2, Robocop, American Gods, Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, The Hunger Games series and more.

In a post on the PlayStation Germany website, Sony warned that you’ll be left without the movies you bought due to “ever-evolving licensing rights deals.”

The basic point is different though, regardless of whether or not you’ve bought a movie from Sony, it’s good to know this situation will repeat itself over and over again when it comes to content bought digitally. At any moment it can disappear, at any moment the store you bought it from can close and you’re left with a fat lip. If it’s something important to you, a collector’s item, buy it in physical format.