Those who recently purchased a PS5 may have noticed something was missing when they opened up the new version of the PlayStation Store – all the movies and TV shows were gone. On the PS4, Sony has offered a broad selection of movies, TV shows, and pay-per-view events for purchase or rent, but apparently, they’ll be strictly focusing on games going forward. While you’ll still be able to watch the movies you’ve already purchased and binge Netflix to your heart’s content, the ability to buy or rent new non-gaming content is going away at the end of the summer. Here’s Sony’s statement on the matter…

　　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.

　　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.

　　While it seems like not many people were watching things through the PlayStation Store (otherwise, Sony wouldn’t be making this change), I’ll personally miss the option. The PS4’s selection of on-demand movies was pretty broad, much better than what I could get through my local cable provider, and it was a great, easy way to watch pay-per-view events. This latest move, combined with the 2020 shutdown of PlayStation Vue, seems to bring to an end any Sony’s multimedia ambitions for their consoles.

　　The PlayStation Store will stop selling movies and other non-gaming content on August 31.