Home Theater Geeks 541 Transcript
Please be advised that this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word-for-word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-free version of the show.
Scott Wilkinson [00:00:00]:
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks, I talk about 2 disturbing announcements from Sony, so stick around. Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is TWiT. Hey there, Scott Wilkinson here, the Home Theater Geek. In this episode, I'm going to talk about 2 announcements from Sony that I found rather disturbing. The first one I found reported in Ars Technica on June 29th. And the article reports that Sony recently informed its PlayStation customers in the UK That they won't be able to watch movies from the StudioCanal library that these customers supposedly purchased. What? I thought I bought those and now I can't watch them anymore.
Scott Wilkinson [00:01:14]:
Well, apparently not. As of September 1st, the people who bought those titles will no longer be able to stream them. And that includes over 550 titles. Wow. From the PlayStation Store. These titles include things like Paddington, Paddington 2, Pan's Labyrinth, Rambo 3, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the best Terminator movie in my opinion. And they say that it was due to their content licensing agreements. One of the banes of online media, if you ask me.
Scott Wilkinson [00:01:58]:
Uh, so as of September, Sony will remove these titles that the UK users presumably purchased, uh, from their PlayStation library. Now, it's possible that Sony may make a deal with StudioCanal by September 1st, uh, or even after that would allow these users to keep watching the content that they bought. This happened apparently in 2023 when Sony said it was going to pull over 1,300 seasons of Discovery shows from customers' libraries. A few weeks later after the announcement, they said, oh, we're not going to do that anyway. We updated our licensing agreement with Discovery. You see this all the time. streamers who suddenly stop carrying a channel or another channel or announce that they're going to, and then, oh, never mind, we made a new agreement. I suspect maybe those announcements are in to make a bargaining position that will facilitate a new agreement.
Scott Wilkinson [00:03:10]:
Whatever it is, I hate it because You presumably bought this content, and particularly in the case of streaming, you know, TV shows or whatever— I still don't like it— but if you bought something and it's yours and it's taken away from you, that's wrong, man. That is wrong. Uh, apparently Sony already pulled 300, over 300 StudioCanal titles from libraries in Germany and Austria. And more recently, Sony deleted people's Funimation digital libraries after it decided to merge the anime streaming service with Crunchyroll. So what the heck is going on here? As the Ars Technica article points out, it's a reminder that we don't own the stuff that we purchase. digitally, which really burns my bacon. Uh, instead, digital rentals and purchases are apparently merely long-term licenses. They're only as valid as the streaming service says they are.
Scott Wilkinson [00:04:30]:
This is very frustrating to me. It's one reason I support physical media. And I know I'm in the minority probably there, but I prefer to own something free and clear and forever. Not to mention that physical media is often higher quality, at least in terms of video content, which is what we're talking about here. Okay, uh, announcement number 2. On July 1st, Polygon reported that Sony would no longer sell physical discs for games on the PlayStation. We're going to include links to both of these articles in the show notes so that you can go check them out yourself. This one is even more disturbing in my opinion.
Scott Wilkinson [00:05:21]:
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Wednesday that it will stop making physical game discs for PlayStation. Quote, as consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital. Apparently Sony's going to discontinue manufacturing physical discs for the PlayStation games in January of 2028. So you have about 18 months left to get physical discs, and after that, games for the PlayStation will be available only in digital format from the PlayStation Store. And from retailers who sell digital formats. Now, does that mean those discs are going to get downloaded into local storage, or are they only going to be playable in the cloud? And if so, what if they lose their licensing to that? Will they disappear? It's really— I mean, Sony, of course, is justifying this decision The Senior Director of SIE Content Communications, Sid Shuman, said, quote, this is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today. Well, okay, that makes sense.
Scott Wilkinson [00:07:03]:
Uh, apparently sales of physical software accounted for just 3% of PlayStation sales in 2024. Um, and, uh, I think I read here— here it is— 80% of PlayStation software sales and 90% of Xbox sales are digital sales. So okay, they aren't selling very many discs. I get that. Okay, it's all right, um, in that sense. But I think this is the start of a slippery slope, um, and if physical discs for games go away in 18 months How long after that will we hear an announcement that no longer will Blu-rays and 4K UHD Blu-rays be made, and the only way to get those is online digitally? Man, if that happens, that is a major bummer. A major bummer. And it links, links back to that first announcement.
Scott Wilkinson [00:08:17]:
Yeah. That if you buy something digitally, there's no guarantee that you can keep it. The company can yank it away from you. Oh, our licensing deal fell through or ran out or we couldn't negotiate a new one. Come on. I own it, don't I? Apparently not. This is why I prefer physical media. Sure, streaming is convenient.
Scott Wilkinson [00:08:46]:
It is. It's great. But it's not as high quality. And you're not guaranteed to be able to watch it anytime you want. So these are 2 stories that really bummed me out this weekend. So I wanted to share them with you. Don't mean to bum your mellow or anything, but— I try to stay up on this sort of stuff, and I want to keep you up on this stuff as well. I hope not.
Scott Wilkinson [00:09:18]:
I hope physical discs for movies particularly, uh, continue on indefinitely, but I really fear that they may not. So if you feel the same way, let me know. Send me an email and particularly send it to the studios and say, I want my Blu-ray and my UHD Blu-ray. Not that it might make much difference, but it's something to do. Anyway, if you have a question for me, send it along to htg@twit.tv and I'll answer as many as I can right here on the show. And if you have a home theater you're proud of, I'd love to see it. Send me some pics and maybe we'll get you on the show to talk about it. Until next time, geek out!
