Earlier this month, it emerged that, due to expired licences, certain Discovery TV shows you may have purchased via PS Store would vanish from your library. It became quite a hot story, highlighting the potential dangers of an all-digital future where access to your "owned" items could be revoked at any moment. As it turns out, this particular example of that horror story isn't happening after all.
Reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Sony has established an "updated licensing agreement" with Warner Bros., which owns Discovery. This means that you won't be losing access to your previously purchased shows, and can continue to enjoy them "for at least the next 30 months".
"Similar to other services, we do not own the licensing rights to TV/movie content that was previously available for purchase on PlayStation Store," said PlayStation in the update. "However, we’ve worked with Warner Bros to update our licensing agreements, ensuring that consumers will be able to access their previously purchased content for at least the next 30 months."
So, your Discovery shows aren't going anywhere for a good two and a half years. Once this updated licence expires, however, we could be back to square one, so brace yourselves for that eventuality.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 43
So you buy content but then has an expiry date?
Phew (nothing else to say)
Ah, indefinite rentals. Truly, our all-digital-delivery future is so wonderful.
@Luigia Any content you buy digitally potentially has an expiration date.
Generally get this kind of thing sorted out before license expiration (and people are none the wiser). While I am sure Sony tried, something happened, and it just didn't finalize in time.
How many times have we seen games get pulled temporarily only to resurface once all the licensing stuff is sorted?
@Luigia You don't buy it. You rent it. Anything you stream isn't owned by you, it's just a license that can expire at any time.
@GamingFan4Lyf This licensing mess may be something do with the upcoming Warner Discovery/Paramount merger.
@Grumblevolcano Wait...what?!
Is it just the Discovery part or the whole of Warner?!
I don't really wanna get into how potentially bad digital can be for the consumer. All I'll say is I'm very happy with my physical collection of fav movies, fav music cds and all my fav physical PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 and PS5 games, yes im still rocking the music cds. Nothing lasts forever of course but I'm far happier when it's physical. Space isn't much of a difficult issue when just sticking to your favs rather than buying everything up because it exists. There's also chunky plastic storage boxes for the older stuff that can be easily and safely stored away in dry corners of rooms that don't get lived in
Don't like to sound like a hypocrite as there is a few digital PS4 and PS5 games I own but those are games that were on very cheap unmissable deals on the PS Store and have eventually grabbed some of those digital games physically later on. PS Plus as well of course
Well since the overwhelming majority of digitally bought games on PS will probably almost never go away I don't care. So far it has been the exception, not the rule, so I sure don't worry about that stuff.
Well...it is covered for another 2.5 years. After that, you could lose the content you purchased.
Purchased digital content is broken across almost all media. I am not a fan of regulation but this is a space that needs attention from lawmakers.
Just a reminder that this year warner erased many cartoons owned by them from HBO MAX and existence, the creators of those shows asked fans to download the piracy they could find. If you want to blame someone blame Warner-Discovery
@GamingFan4Lyf Warner Bros. Discovery was created from the merging of two entities into one, so really it is just one company. Regardless, the news is that WBD may be buying Paramount (or the parent company) rather than the other way round. I have no idea how billion dollar corporations saddled with debt can afford to buy another billion dollar corporation saddled with debt, but then again I don't work in banking. Or movie making. Which is a shame, because I do all my own stunts and love scenes!
Good because games were next on the list. The one fault with digital media is it doesn’t physically exist.
@Luigia
Would have blatantly been written in the terms and conditions that no one reads.
It's why if you have an all time favorite game, film, etc . You should always own a physical version
@gymratAmarillo I believe that had something to do with royalties and WBD's refusal to pay syndication royalties compared to how many viewings they would receive. Not the most likeable move, but you can see the logic.
of course not . anti-digital crowd just couldn’t wait to exaggerate
@BeerIsAwesome imagine being a kid in the 90s and the nicktoons are in the same channel with the cartoon cartoons. Now that possible move just represents a bunch of bad decisions
@BeerIsAwesome Sheesh, I had no idea Paramount was in dire straits.
That'll be interesting going down the road.
Thanks for the information!
People saying you rent rather than buy.
I under the licenses situation. But there is a solution. Sony either refunds all money paid by purchasers, or they negotiate a deal that allows the sales to be final,. similar to 'the pinball arcade' losing the Bally licenses for future sale, but previous purchasers are still allowed access.
Sony paying a ton for stuff that was bought ages ago won't make Sony money. It will cost a lot. But it will restore a little confidence in Sony for existing customers.
And many movies have rent or buy. If we allow this to happen, all bought items become rental, and that's not a good situation
Needs to be an international law that in cases where you do lose content, you get a full refund. After all, it's described as a purchase, not a rental... and your money doesn't expire from their bank account.
The licence should be in perpetuity, transferable in the event the service shuts down and there's a replacement with the rights holder.
If Sony and a Discovery sign a three year desk, that should be how long Sony can sell it for, but buyers have a digital licence forever.
@gymratAmarillo I am old enough to remember Fox Kids, so seeing Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network being under the same roof is about as wild as Disney buying out Fox.
@GamingFan4Lyf I'll be honest, I didn't know that until I Googled it just before I replied to you. I imagine that a lot of these companies operate on huge debts, perhaps for tax reasons or something, but never have their debts called by their creditors. Presumably because a lot of people would lose a lot of money otherwise. Regardless, while the number of majors might be shrinking (Disney, WBD+P, Sony Pictures), the number of mini-majors is higher than ever before (A24, Lionsgate, Netflix, Amazon MGM, etc.).
This will eventually happen to games too. I just hope ppl are more aware about going digital.
@nomither6 to be fair, they did themselves announce that they'd be removing the content
@BeerIsAwesome I do like a good A24 horror movie!
@nomither6 I'm not anti digital per se, but I am very much pro having equity in the things that I buy - a stance recently enhanced by my experience with "Alan Wake 2" which I bought (based on reviews and against my better judgement) and hated. If it had been a physical copy I could've recouped a good chunk of my money by selling it on eBay - as it is I'm out the full £50 or whatever it was.
@GamingFan4Lyf Everything Everywhere All At Once was released by A24, and it's probably the best movie I've seen this year. Sometimes you can argue the mini-majors are more creative than the majors, but they certainly take more risks!
There needs to be a law that says already purchased digital purchases super-cede any other listening agreement so this can’t legally happen. It can only be removed for sale.
"consumers will be able to access their previously purchased content for at least the next 30 months."
I don't think companies or people remember what this word means.
Digital is still 100% the way forwards 🤷 especially for games
@BeerIsAwesome That movie was so crazy! I had to watch it a few times to fully grasp the whole thing.
I do like it when studios are willing to take more risks. The major studios just want to do remakes, sequels, or chase the summer blockbuster bandwagon.
Kind of like the games industry. 😅
That new core Sony app thing that offers a few bits for a plus premium is awful, doesn't work.just sayin'
I wonder how much the collective outrage and warnings about the dangers of digital media led to whatever negotiations happened to allow the change to be rolled back, at least temporarily. Or perhaps it's more similar to when your local TV channel and cable or satellite company have a dispute, and each starts warning you the channel may go away because the other side is being unreasonable.
Are they hoping that after 30 months, people will be less upset because they knew it was coming? Or are they expecting to sort out some new deal during those 30 months, and this is just a stay while they continue negotiations?
It's bad for the industry as a whole to have customers lose access entirely. It would be much smarter if they could either issue refunds or issue some sort of migration, so if you owned the content from Playstation you could continue to access the content on service X by linking your Playstation and X accounts.
@Octane May be so but this should be disclosed and not in the fine print. Maybe call it something else instead of buying if you buy a car nobody is picking it up in 5 years to take it back.
@Jaz007 Otherwise donr tell people they but it but call it a long time rental or something.
Now I know y people spend ridiculous amounts of money 💰 on anime blu-ray discs
@nomither6 The anti digital crowd shows that digital is never really yours they can take it away when they please. This example shows that this is still true they bought and people still will lose access to it eventually.
Big corp start small but pushes the goalpost further every time we saw it with microtransactions, battle passes and DLC.
You can even call it microtransactions anymore anyway they sell digital content that is more expensive then some games already.
Ofcourse MS, Sony and Nintendo can't wait to go full digital so they control the market completely. Gamepass and PS Plus extra is a brilliant scheme a complete control of the customer, developers and the secondhand market.
Nintendo goes as far with locking digital content in a fault to make it seem more valuable then it really is and it shows that none of them are the good guys.
@Beerheadgamer82 what, are the rest of your corners wet? 😂
In all seriousness, these are words to live by. I’ve bought lots of digital music but if I really truly like an album enough, I’ll burn it lossless add it to my “favorites” or just flat outright buy the CD. I’m supporting artists I love and also future proofing sort of.
This all-digital stuff is so anti consumer and out of principle I won’t support it if I’m able to.
Make them downloadable on PS4/5 or PC without a need for further authentication. Maybe that would solve the issue?
It's good they have extended the agreement, but it's not a long term solution, all they have done is lengthen the gangplank.
@Stickleman @PixelDragon To give you some FACTS, according to Sony's own financial reports (page 9) 67% of all full games sold were digital in the last financial year. That means one third of games sold on PlayStation were physical.
But that doesn't take into account that many games are digital only, which skews those figures towards digital, nor does it take into account the game sharing/borrowing or second hand market.
When you take all that into account physical will be much nearer to digital in terms of popularity. It isn't going anywhere anytime soon, unless we let it. (edited) Personally I like a combination of both.
This deleting a digital copy from your own library is theivery just like walking in to your home and taking the disc back that you paid money for. They really need to sort out digital games before we go all digital. Games are coming out on pc I can back up my full gog installer packs on a HDD il get out off the only digital console. I prefer something physical for the money I put in I like my discs in my library.
@ChromaticDracula ha they're all dry but some corners might be less ideal than other corners
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