"Hundreds" of films at PS3 VOD launch

By Robert Purchese Published 5 November, 2009

Sony promises healthy rental variety.

Sony has told Eurogamer that its PS3 video rental service will stock "hundreds" of films when launched later this month.

Although when exactly the service will appear, and how much the movies will cost, the publisher would not say.

Studios signed up for the programme so far include big-guns like 20th Century Fox, MGM Studios, Paramount, Lionsgate, Universal, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures.

Blockbusters chalked up for rental are the latest Harry Potter (Half-Blood Prince), Transformers 2, Bruno and The Hills Have Eyes.

Look out for more information later this month.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • cianchristopher #1 2 years ago

    "Hundreds" of shit movies, I'll wager...

  • Milk #2 2 years ago

    1080p?

  • bad09 #3 2 years ago

    What is the bloody secret why not actually inform CUSTOMERS of when they can spend some money on your store?

    Anyway I do hope this isn't a high priced flop I need a good legal download service for movies to own, now if only they were DRM free...

  • Zebula77 #4 2 years ago

    Sounds promising to me. If that is, they keep the prices somewhat realistic.

    And I really hope it's gonna be HD. Don't see the point if not.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #5 2 years ago

    Well i looked on 360 last week and after over a year of video service they had 274 films, if sony can beat that on launch day it will be quite embarrasing for MS.

    To be honest hundreds of films is actualy quite dissapointing the US PSN has over 2000 films and over 14000 tv shows, i hope after Euro video store has been running a year they can boast somethign similar.

    And the pricing better be descent!

  • bad09 #6 2 years ago

    A while ago I did google to find out what the yanks pay (which I didn't find out oddly) I did discover someone saying you could only rent the HD content over there, which is crap. Would be nice if Sony told what to expect.

    Also I want to know the DRM restrictions on copying to PSPs and downloading etc. Between me and my girlfriend we have 2 PS3s and 2 PSPs. (not to mention other hardware but that's another DRM argument!)

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #7 2 years ago

    I believe the US Video store is getting updated the same day the Euro store launches to support buy as well as rent options and also PSP compatibility

  • EvilBob_leeds #8 2 years ago

    @bad09

    [link url=http://www.gamertell.com/gaming/commen t/playstation-video-store-goes-live/
    ]http://ww w.gamertell.com/gaming/comment/...[/link]

    $2.99 SD, $4.99 HD in the US. There'll be the obligatory European mark up on that, so I'd guess £2.49 - £2.99 SD and £3.99 - £4.99 HD

  • peterv #9 2 years ago

    Can you store the films on an external drive?
    My wife has 100's of singstar vids, and i don't want to spend hours downloading them again if i have to swap the HDD.
    Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 12:53

  • TopKatt #10 2 years ago

    ^^

    You can back up the contents of your hard drive to an external one and then restore to your new drive.

  • woodnotes #11 2 years ago

    I'd expect £3.49-£3.99 for SD new release rentals based on other services like Sky Box Office, 360 Video Marketplace etc. £4.99 for HD rentals.
    Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 13:07

  • freakzilla #12 2 years ago

    I hope this service isn't just a bunch of big box office hits. The films I like tend to be a bit odd or disturbing or just plain unpopular.

    If they have old Japanese films or something like Moonlight Whispers or some Myazaki stuff it would really make me really happy.
    Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 13:15

  • peterv #13 2 years ago

    @TopKatt

    Thanks :)
    That's good news as i thought Singstar vids were locked to your hard-drive.
    Looks like a new HDD for me then.

  • Johnsters #14 2 years ago

    Yes, come on Sony, lets see the launch titles and cost.
    Waiting patiently...............

    At least this will save me going to Blockbuster; though at BB, 5 blurays for £10 for 4-5 nights - so hopefully pricing will be comparable.
    Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 13:24

  • superted1974 #15 2 years ago

    I'm not thinking of myself but... I expect adult films would sell quite well on this.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #16 2 years ago

    Can't wait for this to launch.

    I am going to conduct an experiment to see which is faster, online bluray purchase or Sony VOD rental... it will go a little like this.

    1. Open up play.com and choose a film.
    2. Choose the same film on Sony VOD.
    3. Simultaneously confirm the play.com order and the Sony VOD rental.
    4. Wait for postman/Sony VOD rental to download.

    First one to get to me in one piece and watchable to the end wins.

    I may have to factor into my experiment any postal delays due to strikes or lazy posties.

  • Doctor_What #17 2 years ago

    @peterv - SingStar does work a little differently to normal HDD content. When my PS3 died I had to call up Sony customer support, they voided my old downloads and re-enabled them for me. When I next loaded up SingStar all of the purchased songs were ready for me to download again. It's a bit of a pain, but worth it for the extra disk space - I now have a 250GB drive happily sitting in my machine containing three people's entire music collections, several films and TV shows, numerous downloaded games, over 1000 photos...

  • Darren #18 2 years ago

    I have a usage limit of 75 GB per month and pay £35 for a 24 Mb/s connection (Karoo) so there's no way I'd even consider downloading movies for rental. I wouldn't even buy them as I know that if my PS3 went tits up as has happened twice now that I'd have to redownload everything again with a new machine. That's because the PS3's backup utility, which is excellent in every other respect, will not restore DRMed content to anything but the machine you backed it up from. Given the flaky hardware quality of both major consoles, downloading movies is an absolute no-no as far I'm concerned.

    I'll continue to buy the discs, thank you.

  • Johnsters #19 2 years ago

    @Darren
    Like you I will not purchase movies, but only rent.
    I thought with Karoo, it's unlimited Download between midnight and 8am.
    Set your rental download then :-)

  • Fleeby #20 2 years ago

    If it's a shit a service as Vidzone, then I'll pass...

  • miiiguel #21 2 years ago

    Completly off-topic, but that ISP name (Karo) is so funny, as it means, literaly "expensive" in portuguese.

  • gjgjg #22 2 years ago

    imdb is blocked for me in work but for starters it might look like:
    [link url=http://www.imd b.com/company/co0172249/
    ]http://www.imd b.com/company/co0172249/
    [/link]

  • Johnsters #23 2 years ago

    @EarlBassett

    I doubt 80% of movie go-ers know who Myazaki is (outside of Asia). They may know about Spirited away, but will not link the 2 names.
    *and when I say movie go-ers, I mean average punters, not Film/Empire subscribers.
    Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 15:24

  • JackyB #24 2 years ago

    join love film. £12 a month. unlimited films (max 2 at a time). Can get quite a few on Bluray too. Why bother with Sony or Microsofts offerings?

  • Johnsters #25 2 years ago

    ^^
    Finding a post box :-)

  • JackyB #26 2 years ago

    @johnsters. lol - yes there is the issue with Royal Mail. Which is why its nice that Lovefilm extended my free trial from 4 weeks to 6 :-)

    Do I sound like I am on the Payroll?
    Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 15:30

  • FogHeart #27 2 years ago

    I think Sony absolutely would not give Bluray technology to the adult film industry when it first came out, which was why they all backed the losing side in the format war. I'd be interested to see if Sony has, er, softened its stance on the adult film industry. Purely from a trivia perspective, you understand...

  • BritishBlue1 #28 2 years ago

    @Fleeby
    "If it's a shit a service as Vidzone, then I'll pass..."

    Oh piss off you raging twat. Vidzone is great service and costs nothing. I always have it on whenever mates come round for a drink.

  • Arwin #29 2 years ago

    @peterv: redownloading your singstar songs is only necessary when you get a new PS3, as it's locked to your PS3 id. For a new HDD only it's not necessary, and you can use the backup system as mentioned by TopKatt.

    All this whining, when poor people like me from the Netherlands will have to wait much, much longer still. :(

  • man.the.king #30 2 years ago

    @FogHeart

    I think adult films are already available for sale on Blu-Ray online. Not sure which studios though...

  • man.the.king #31 2 years ago

    @BritishBlue1

    I think Fleeby's just an XBot troll - see his profile.

  • Glasofruix #32 2 years ago

    'Kay but are they coming, like EVERYWHERE? Because i'm still searching VOD films on my 360 (2 shitty trailers in dutch, we have nothing other than that...)

  • BadByte #33 2 years ago

    Yet another UK only service

  • filmbuff #34 1 year ago

    The new lovefilm service is just about to come out, not sure what happened to this!

    ps3 film streaming