PlayStation To Delete A Ton Of TV Shows Users Already Paid For

Sony says Mythbusters and more Discovery TV shows are going away whether you bought them or not.

[darthv72]

they have no choice... Its the content holders decision and I'd assume this will affect other services as well.

[just_looken]

Not the point they did this in the past and continue to take your money without the end user knowing its not a purchase but a rental. If this was a video game like the all mighty spiderman everyone would flip there shit

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com...

Marvel buys spiderman ip pulls every game from ps5 makes it multiplat "remaster" version every sony cult member would riot LOL

[Obscure_Observer]

"Marvel buys spiderman ip pulls every game from ps5 makes it multiplat "remaster" version every sony cult member would riot LOL"

Totally!

[MrBeatdown]

"without the end user knowing its not a purchase but a rental."

How dumb do you have to be to not realize the servers for whatever random thing you buy digitally won't be around until the end of time? I know I ain't passing down my Vudu account to my grand kids.

[Gamingsince1981]

People don't realise that digital content isn't permanent and you never own it ??? Weird because it's in the tos.

[just_looken]

@javiel22

But i have spiderman on my pc/ps4 and do not want to buy a $800 plastic box.

I also have saved over $300 this year thanks to gamepass because in the old days we went to a store it was call a video rental store aka blockbuster/movie gallery video stop.

These magic places you could rent stuff no it really before 2010 the world was a thing and we had rental's income you could live off of and a friendly no mass killing society.

In these magic buildings you would pay what we pay for gamepass to rent games and if you liked them you buy them just a crazy thing i know but it was real. So because i used to go to these fantasy buildings i enjoy gamepass as its basicaly my yearly blockbuster budget and or a price of 1 point 5 games per year.

[NotoriousWhiz]

Won't stop me from buying digital, but trust and believe that if they try to take my stuff. I will find other means to get it back. 🏴‍☠️

[badz149]

You do know if they could buy the Spidey IP back from Sony THAT easily, they would have done it long ago, right?

[shinoff2183]

I mean that kinda is the point. What should Sony do? Their not removing it. Cute try though at the bash

Go physical. These type of things will continue to happen.

[shadowT]

No, Phil Spencer would solve this issue by buying Warner.

[DarXyde]

Affect others? Very likely. It starts with Sony, but I doubt they'll be the last.

This right here from the article gets to me:

“Is there a way I can save this content?” asked one panicked PlayStation user on Reddit. “I use PS4...But I have bought many seasons of shows such as Dual Survival that I do not wish to lose. I was actually under the impression since I owned it, I wouldn’t ever lose it…”

This is a substantial concern of mine. There are many people who make digital purchases and because they have not been inconvenienced by what licensing entails in comparison to ownership (yet), there's a passive acceptance of this happening—likely, they don't know. It's easy to say they should have read the ToS, but I think Sony owes those users store credit *at minimum*.

If people are content with throwing money at things where a merger could light that money on fire, have at it. But companies NEED to do a better job of informing people and they REALLY need to drop the price of digital purchases. You do NOT have the same rights and access as physical media holders and that needs to be reflected in the pricing. $30-40 seems appropriate. What's worse, you're restricted to PSN pricing schemes, so they can lower prices at a Nintendo pace.

I feel bad for owners of the original PS5DE, but I'll give Sony some credit for allowing slim DE owners a means of adopting physical media now. It's a way to address a growing concern, but I still contend the general public knows very little about digital purchases.

[shinoff2183]

I've always figured most people prefer the digital so they don't have to get the fk off the couch or whatever their sitting on. All because of that your willing to lose ownership.

[JackBNimble]

Shinoff that's such a load of propaganda claiming physical means you own the media... you don't. You have access to the license, that's it that's all.

[-Foxtrot]

Still pretty f****** shitty

This is always why physical whether it’s music, film or games matter

[JackBNimble]

You guy's need to stop making excuses for Sony. Isn't this part of the reason they increased psn? They should have done something regardless if it cost them money.

[Snookies12]

*cough* physical media *cough* Granted, these days I buy most media digitally. But, this is why physical media should NEVER go away.

[just_looken]

But it has australia and now new zeland no longer have them and every walmart/bestbuy in north America is getting rid of them.

I have recently seen the old code in a box when you buy a movie now.

https://wccftech.com/best-b...

https://comicbook.com/gamin...

[shinoff2183]

And maybe they change their mind when sales drop. Their pratically giving their money to amazon and other online stores. Anytime i ever walked into best buy it was for a movie or a game. Ive no reason to go now. Sometimes id buy other things not related to my reason for going

[Chocoburger]

I hate how digital rights are handled, and hope physical media doesn't go away (at least in my life time). Fortunately I know better than to purchase TV shows and movies digitally.

[Mulando]

Physical media goes away after about 20-30 years because the media degrades

[Chocoburger]

We don't know that for sure, 41 year old game tapes on the Spectrum still work to this day. No one knows how long blu-rays will last.
Furthermore, your own physical media is easier to back up onto a hard drive, and from an old hard drive to newer hard drives as the decades wear on.

[Mulando]

Already lost some DVDs because of degrading materials.

Backing things up makes it easier, but is not allowed in my country if the media has a copy protection. Because of that, I love gog.com

[DarXyde]

Highly dependent on the owner, I would say.

As of ~February 2023 (last time I tried), my NES, SNES, Genesis, N64 games still work. I think I have a copy of Shenmue for Dreamcast where one of the discs doesn't work, but that's totally my fault.

All of my consoles still work, and I would say 90-95% of my old games still work.

It absolutely depends on how you take care of them.

[Kornholic]

That's mostly BS. You can test it for yourself by playing PS1 and PS2 games, for example.

[Minute Man 721]

50 to 100 years

[just_looken]

https://comicbook.com/gamin...

[OtterX]

The 2 largest electronic store chains where I live already stopped carrying all blurays, hd blurays, dvds. We were told that Disney for instance has already stopped production of bluray discs as of August. We were pretty disappointed bc we wanted to get some classic Disney movies for our kids for Christmas, and handing a 3 and 6 year old digital codes just isn't as fun, you know?

Of course we can still buy them online for now, but there will be a bigger push to discontinue disc production in the future.

It's all part of a push for greater sustainability.

"Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better" -Essay posted on World Economic Forum's official website

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Physical > Digital cough cough

[shadowT]

we need a TV series preservation

[just_looken]

YES WE DO! so many shows now are trash because so few watched the greats and think cgi/clipboard shows are great.

I watched cops/og simpsons/king of the hill/deadwood starship troopers cartoon or you got the original dc animated/marvel first xmen stuff spawn cybersix or the goat from japan ghost in the shell. Oh the them songs were banger and the movies all used real guns/props stunts mad max anyone? or the dirty harry stuff

[Michiel1989]

wdym? The tv shows we get nowadays are great, definitely in the best period ever when it comes to tv shows.

[just_looken]

@much

5 shows that are praised user/critic side to the end last 5 years.

[PRIMORDUS]

This is why you torrent everything that is Movies, TV Shows, Music. Or you can go old school and pick a Usenet provider. In this way you own it they can't do shit once you have it. 😁 100% of the above I take, with games just some on PC. Because in the end you will lose everything you paid for, unless you just take what you want and be on your way LOL.

[Harkins1721]

Digital is the future!

[isarai]

All digital future sux, that is all.

[Popsicle]

Literally purchased three 4K Blu rays after reading this article. All of my movie and gaming purchases have always been physical and will continue to be until it is no longer an option. Screw this idea of owning nothing and being happy.

[BlaqMagiq1]

Now imagine you bought these physical. That way you can keep it forever!

[Petebloodyonion]

At least Stadia refunded games when they closed the shop!
I strongly hope that some class action suits or some regulator starts looking into this because this will start to become the norm for a lot of games.

[Einhander1972]

You understand that PlayStation did not control this media? And that when you use a service like this you're connecting to that services servers. PlayStation does not own or host the files on their servers.

[Einhander1972]

The files aren't hosted by them on their servers, streaming or download has nothing to do with how they are hosted.

It's Discovery that owns them and has removed access.

[Petebloodyonion]

Did I mentioned Sony?
The only thing I said was that Stadia refunded ppl.
Now if its WB who closed shop then perhaps they should refund some.
Perhaps it’s Sony if they mentioned on web store Own it …
Etc.

Now I just hope that regulator check into that because now we’re gonna have publishers like Ea remove games in the same way in the future.

[Petebloodyonion]

And yeah Sony could be in the wrong too
Because like you said they don’t own the files but they could easily allow download of said titles on current console just like some ppl still owns copies of PT.
Judging by the article some ppl wrote to Sony for some backup solutions.

[VariantAEC]

@Pete
The content is streaming only.
You can't download it hence why it is disappearing forever. Did this happen on PS3 where you could download the content? No. There is a reason for that.
Streaming is the next frontier of you will own nothing and be happy.

But you can still rip streamed data at full quality. This is the only way to get back outside of torrenting content.

The content isn't Sony's to have and hold forever. If this was a Sony PlayStation first party game (or movie) going away and being deleted from your PS console. I'd be singing a very different tune, but it isn't. Also... technically with installed data that can be erased by the publisher depending on how much control they have of your device. Apple did this to people with banned apps. They went in to remove apps from their users iPhones and Macs that was installed on those systems. This has been a thing Apple has done to it's users since 2009 or so and even worse is that the content makers didn't want this to happen... Apple did it of their own volition. In most cases the apps being deleted were free, but I'm not even sure that was always the case.

[outsider1624]

Ah so this is the future for all digital huh? Thank God for physical.

[Crows90]

The glorious all digital future.

[TheColbertinator]

The failures of the digital only future

[SimpleSlave]

That why you pirate this stuff. If you pay to not own then just pay to have a clean conscience and then get yourself the product for life without feeling bad about it.

💪🧠🤳

[jwillj2k4]

They need to offer a way to download it or something this is complete bullshit.

[Inverno]

It is morally correct to pirate media, and don't let yourself be convinced otherwise.

[Popsicle]

I don’t agree that pirating is morally correct because it can destroy and industry and if it doesn’t destroy it, the consumer ends up losing in the end due to tighter controls (DRM, etc.). Basically the issues we are facing now.

However, I do see how decisions like the removal of content that was purchased will lead to more justification for piracy. If you are being robbed of something you purchased, it’s only natural to want to take it back or take something of at least equal value.

[Mr_cheese]

It's poor form and a a show of the downside to digital.

If you buy something, digital or physical, you should own it period.

[Good-Smurf]

This is why I don't subscribe or buy any TV shows or mobies digitally on any platform.
They can take it all away from you at any time and there's nothing you can do because you already agreed with their lengthy Terms and Condition.
If's unfortunate I feel the need to pirate my favorite shows in some ways as these companies tried too hard to gatekeeping their content and I don't have much choice to watch fhem at my own pace and leisure, these shows all felt like they have expiration date written all over it and I can't really watch it anytime I want.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Not surprised, they've done this before, but this is easily enough evidence on why you shouldn't buy TV content from Sony.

[Popsicle]

I would argue that it is evidence enough not to purchase digital content on any platform.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Sometimes it's hard to avoid, for example, when I got back into PC gaming, I was shocked that digital only was a thing, basically physical doesn't exist (it's just a CD with the bare minimum/or a download code). Steam's pretty good with it's digital content though, even if they delist a game, you can still download/play it as much as you like as long as you already own it.

[jznrpg]

This will happen from time to time with digital. License expires and that’s it.

I buy physical for many reasons but this is one of them.

[BeHunted]

License expires? How come I'm allowed to keep delisted games on my account, but not media content?

It doesn't make sense, just like your comment.

[QuantumMechanic]

His comment makes perfect sense. There are both storefront and end-user licenses. You are referring to the end-user license. Platform-holders must also be licensed (via contract) in order to sell another company's product.

Does it make sense to you now?

[jznrpg]

It seems you don’t know how digital works.

[Haki1112]

If buying it doesn't mean you own it then piracy isn't stealing.

[__y2jb]

It’s really bad and I’m not defending it but…this literally must effect less than 100 people.

[Bebedora]

There is places for non-stop tv-shows.

[SpacedDuck]

This is going to lead to a ton of piracy in the future. Why would I pay to buy something that can be taken away at any point?

[Gamingsince1981]

Thats the way digital media has always been.....how come it will lead to piracy all of a sudden ?

[TheEnigma313]

Reason why physical media is important

[MetroidFREAK21]

Screw this all digital future :)

[mastershredder]

The Terms yo.... Please don't be that little nancy that feeds into this and spews outrage over spilt koolaide like a 5 year old that does not understand the basic fundamentals of physics. This is pathetic jounralism...and it is.... Kotaku.

[bleedsoe9mm]

Nobody should trust Sony with anything

[VariantAEC]

This is a huge deal...
But this somehow isn't: https://n4g.com/news/257686...

Make it make sense.
The same thing is happening to both things here. A video content provider is making games content go bye-bye but Discoveries thingy seems to only effect PS while this Universal collab affects everyone (PC, PS, Switch, and Xbox), but only if they purchased the content in this one game. Capcom doesn't own the rights to Sonic Sega does and somehow Universal also has rights because of the Sonic movies. But Monster Hunter is owned by Capcom. So Sonic is being ripped away from the Capcom universe forever even if you paid to experience Sonic in Monster Hunter: Rise.

This is indeed the price of not owning things.
But you can never own DLC... So why is everyone so upset that Sony has to remove access to Discovery Channel content that was never even explicitly available to store locally?