Sony reveals Mubi timing, price plan

By Robert Purchese Published 18 May, 2010

Promises minimum 300 films at launch.

Sony has told Eurogamer the Mubi film-streaming service will arrive on PS3 this autumn.

There will be 300 to 500 films available at launch, and more added weekly.

Some will be free, but others require buying. This can be done per film or as part of an all-you-can-watch subscription.

"Exact pricing hasn't been nailed down," a spokesperson told us.

Mubi, previously The Autuers, is a platform for film enthusiasts to watch and talk about high calibre content; expect Hitchcock, not Bruckheimer.

The PS3 Mubi deal was announced earlier this morning. Mubi, like VidZone, will be accessible via a downloadable app that installs to the XMB menu.

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 (31) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • X201 #1 2 years ago

    Oh, you meant streaming :D

  • djed #2 2 years ago

    Michael Bay too?

  • Widge #3 2 years ago

    Well... picture quality is key here. I doubt it would use it but that MS Silverlight feature Digital Foundry did was very impressive. Its the only way I'd want to watch streaming anything personally.

    Where is MS with that for the 360 anyway? That article was ages ago!

  • Beano #4 2 years ago

    I suspect this will only be available for some European countries... :(

  • 1Dgaf #5 2 years ago

    I'd just like Lovefilm, thanks. You can get on Sony TVs, Blu-Ray players after all.

  • X201 #6 2 years ago

    Beano,

    The Aussies got the Video Store today.

    They might get this in 2014

  • solidSnake04 #7 2 years ago

    PR Statement in a year or two when launching some new service "all in one":
    "With all this VidZone and Mubi, et al, the customers are getting confused. This all in one solution will clear up all confusion, you just need to pay more for it"


    /go look at my profile before abusing

  • the_dudefather #8 2 years ago

    'Sony reveals price plan'

    'Exact pricing hasn't been nailed down'

    ?

  • kangarootoo #9 2 years ago

    @the_dudefather

    I guess they plan on, there being a price?

  • cozeny #10 2 years ago

    Do they stream any movies for free?

  • sneetch #11 2 years ago

    @the_dudefather
    'Sony reveals price plan'

    'Exact pricing hasn't been nailed down'

    As in Sony has revealed the way they will be charging for this, but not the charges themselves.

    "Some will be free, but others require buying. This can be done per film or as part of an all-you-can-watch subscription. "

    "Buying" though? Surely they mean renting?

  • mattniche #12 2 years ago

    "Do they stream any movies for free?"

    Not that I can see.

  • buggrit #13 2 years ago

    Do you think I'll be able to watch one of THESE movies the same night as I rent and start downloading it, unlike the current PSN movie store? 4mb connection allows me to stream from Zune Marketplace, but it takes fucking hours to download anything from Sony :(

  • jonsaan #14 2 years ago

    Will it take about 10 minutes to fire up like Vid Zone?

    The one time I tried to watch a film on my PS3 it took all night to download :( Hopefully they can get over that rather large hurdle.

  • spiny #15 2 years ago

    buggritDo you think I'll be able to watch one of THESE movies the same night as I rent and start downloading it, unlike the current PSN movie store?

    I'm on about 5.5Mb - I generally let it buffer to 10% and start playing, then it's good for the rest of the film.

  • Acrid #16 2 years ago

    Won't someone think of the Blockbuster employees

  • Mkwone #17 2 years ago

    Darn highbrow stuff, I like my summer blockbusters dammit!

  • Freek #18 2 years ago

    To me this sounds a little counter productive. The high quality movies are usually the ones I end up buying, and the dumb action movie is something that's perfect for a one time silly rental. But that's just me.

  • jefranklin18 #19 2 years ago

    @Freek:

    I see your point, but if there was a director on there whose work you were not familiar with, then surely you would want to rent before committing to a purchase?

  • CaptainQuint #20 2 years ago

    I'm actually interested in seeing how this turns out. If the pricing doesn't take the piss, I'd gladly pay like 99p to rent an old Hitchcock or Lean classic. They can't seriously expect people to pay a high premium for old movies, so I'll wait and see.

    Gimme classic cinema over that Jerry Bruckheimer garbage any day of the week.

  • davisorle #21 2 years ago

    Im surely not paying for this :) Im paying for better services with streaming video so no go for me here. Unless they are SO good with this one and better that I get convinced to move to it. Which has a 3% chance to do so.

  • Kaminari #22 2 years ago

    It better be part of the PSN Premium subscription.

  • Markitron #23 2 years ago

    Still dont have the video store in Ireland, maybe well get this on the PS4...........

  • callum9999 #24 2 years ago

    1Dgaf - apparently lovefilm run blinkbox, and that is available on the PS3 (or at least will be - I think its already launched?).

  • fongy #25 2 years ago

    I think the key to this will be absolutely picture quality and speed of connection / downloads - Vidzone's quality is TERRIBLE... and yes, it takes ages to boot up and is just generally sloooooow but at least it's freeeeeee!!!)

  • onyxbox #26 2 years ago

    Internet traffic shaping is ruining all this stuff for us here in the UK.

    Fibre to the door! That's what we need... not the crappy throttled and/or capped BT DSL we get at the moment... Grr!

  • Jmog #27 2 years ago

    I just skimmed the comments at the Mubi site. One of the admins was kind enough to make this post:

    Hello,
    We just announced our partnership and currently developing the application (working really hard!) to launch in Fall. We don’t know all the answers yet. But here is what we know..
    - availability: the service will be launched this Fall, initially in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Iberia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Nordic countries, Australia and New Zealand.
    - the application will be free to download, and once installed, you will be able to start watching ad-sponsored films for free, or via pay per view, or on a monthly subscription giving access to the whole catalogue. pricing to be determined later.
    - SD. Stereo and Dobly 5.1 when available. Original language. Local subtitles.
    -no interruption by commercials. never.

    Fantastic news. I dared not hope we would get it in Denmark at launch but he clearly says we will! If the pricing on the PS3 version is comparable to the pc version, then I can definetely see myself paying 10-12 pounds a month for unlimited acces.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/10 @ 17:44

  • busboy33 #28 2 years ago

    Its ad-sponsored, but there are no commercial interruptions? Methinks we're not using "interruption" in the same way. So if a callout box popped up while the film was still running, on the bottom strip turns into a ad crawl, that wouldn't be called an "interruption" since the movie is still running?

    There's got to be something going on. A commercial or two before a 90 minute movie would be too cheap to cover the whole movie cost, and nobody is going to watch commercials after the movie, so they HAVE to have somre commercials in the middle. I'm not saying that's good, just that's the way you get paid for broadcasting media.

    Like everytbody has said, the details will make this either pretty damn nice or just meh . . . but it certainly isn't anything bad. Kudos to Sony.

  • Jmog #29 2 years ago

    Hmm, maybe they just show ads in the gui. That would be acceptable.

  • 3william56 #30 2 years ago

    X201 - we get this on Thursday apparently, and it's a US style download service, not streaming (we Down Under are cursed with 1960s issue broadband, so wouldn't be worth sh*t on streaming - VidZone is pretty much unwatchable most days). Going to be interesting to see if there's a timed download option, because our ISP plans are pretty last century too - often with the bulk of our download quota relegated to 3am. No all you can eat bband here...

    Apparently costs A$4 a rent, A$8 to buy (though I'm gonna guess that's the lower tier old / rubbish / SD films - can't see me getting Avatar in HD for less than a tenner, though we can hope).

  • TILT #31 2 years ago

    Its ad-sponsored, but there are no commercial interruptions?
    I took their statement to mean "You can watch for free, and then it's ad-sponsored, OR you can pay, and then there will be no commercial interruptions." Not sure, though.The Mubi website isn't any help when it comes to pricing, either. The only free films they have look like they are probably in the public domain.
    UPDATE: Ok, registered. Pricing for the PC version seems to be 3 EUR for one film, 12 EUR for five films, or a subscription of 12 EUR per month for unlimited access. Not sure about the video quality, though... the sample here http://mubi.com/about/wat ch that they use to promote their video quality doesn't look great at all... Not blocky, but rather low-res.
    Edited by 1 at 19/05/10 @ 09:33