Film Studios Fail PSN Video Store
A friday afternoon rant - but not at Sony.Published 27/11/2009 at 14:00 by Tuffcub
Today’s new releases on the UK PSN Video store are Terminator Salvation, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. What happened to the 50+ movies we were promised every week? Annoyingly the rest of Europe has also got Transformers Revenge of the Fallen and Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince, Transformers is out in the UK on Monday so why is this not on the UK PSN store? Also, why are new releases only available as a standard def purchase rather than rental? According to the EU Blog,
“Usually new releases are available to buy first and then couple weeks later for rental.”
Why is this different to the ‘real world’? Blockbuster has movies for rental before they are available in shops, why should the ‘digital world’ have a different arrangement? The problem is that Sony can only sell or rent movies which film studios have approved and only in the format the studio allows. Star Trek is only available as a SD purchase which annoyed the hell out of me (and you). A quick glance over on the Zune video store run by Microsoft reveals their version of Star Trek has the same problem, only available as an SD rental. Matt F from the Zune video store says,
“I understand the frustration on not being able to watch Star Trek in HD, but we’re at the mercy of the Studios/Networks and licensing deals.”
Whilst these licensing deals are in place I can see little use for the PSN, Zune video or any other service. To be told by Paramount that we cannot have Star Trek HD on the PSN yet we can buy it on the more expensive Blu Ray format is just insulting. Whilst we as consumers are embracing the digital age the Hollywood film studios are not, until they do there is no point checking the PSN video store, Zune video store or anywhere else online for new releases.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.« Previous 1 2
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Fresh191 | 27/11/2009 18:44
Member
584 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
Blockbuster: 2 blu-ray rentals for £5, what a sweet deal, no 16 hour wait and you get to watch the extras which is a big benafit of blu-ray technology, having all that space to add content.
I have to agree with the general thoughts of people on the store in that it will need time to get settled before prices and products really become worth the purchase.
As for the studios they are cutting themselves of from some good revanue. Holding back content and charging over the odds for SD content seems a little silly to me in this HD and digital age.
Damigos | 27/11/2009 22:47
* Banned *
-828 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2009
I consider it to be too expensive to rent a movie. 5 euros to rent an HD movie? My video club rents them for 2 euros and is 24 hours open..
i wouldnt even buy one because the ps3 has no burning ability. So you will never actually get a physical copy of it