News Microsoft quietly removes ability to purchase movies and TV shows on Xbox and the Microsoft Store

[marees]

Microsoft quietly removes ability to purchase movies and TV shows on Xbox and the Microsoft Store​

Previously purchased content on Windows and Xbox devices will still be available, though.

The change came about abruptly earlier this week, with a FAQ update on both the Xbox and Windows pages confirming that as of 18th July, "Microsoft has stopped selling new movie and TV content".

"Existing customers can continue to access their previously purchased content on Windows and Xbox devices," the FAQ explains, "[and] players can continue to play personal videos on Xbox devices. Windows customers can continue to have access to playback and the download functionality."

As PC Gamer points out, this isn't unique to Microsoft - in fact, both Apple and Google have effectively done the same thing, only earlier

Microsoft quietly removes ability to purchase movies and TV shows on Xbox and the Microsoft Store

Microsoft is no longer selling or renting movies and TV shows.

www.eurogamer.net

A comment speculates that this could be a result of blackmail by spotify that Microsoft should not have a competing first party service on the platform

 

[quikah]

For some reason I thought this happened a few years ago. Sony apparently removed this from PS in 2021, maybe I am thinking of that...

 

[SteveGrabowski]

For some reason I thought this happened a few years ago. Sony apparently removed this from PS in 2021, maybe I am thinking of that...

Except with Sony you lost access to stuff you pay for, which reminds me that if buying isn't ownership downloading for free isn't stealing.

 

[purbeast0]

Except with Sony you lost access to stuff you pay for, which reminds me that if buying isn't ownership downloading for free isn't stealing.

I am pretty sure that happened with the MK2 version I had on PS3. It was removed from the store and I can't even redownload it even though I purchased it.

Physical 4 life.

 

[PingSpike]

PlaysForSure

 

[Ginger_McDou21]

Classic Microsoft move quietly kills a feature nobody asked them to keep, but hey, your old stuff still works… for now. Feels like another nudge toward subscriptions and streaming, and honestly, we’re all just along for the ride.