Sony announces PlayStation 3 movie downloads

Sony continued to push the PlayStation 3 as a multimedia hub Thursday with a movie download service announcement for the U.S.

Please, call it the MOVIEstation

Please, call it the MOVIEstation

Sony announced today that it will launch a movie download service for the PlayStation 3 this summer in the U.S. market.

The movie-themed announcement came from Kazuo Hirai, who is the head of Sony's video game unit. Hirai said the service will be offered in Japan and Europe at later dates. Further details on the service will be available until next month, he said. GamePro Hint: Think "E3."

The movie news arrived during a wide-ranging meeting with Japanese reporters at Sony HQ. Also covered was the struggling PS3/gaming business unit, which has lost Sony $3.3 billion to date. Hirai said Sony will "strengthen its network services and further cut costs to achieve profitability in the Sony gaming business" by the end of the fiscal year (March 2009), reported the Associated Press.

Sony also announced news and weather channels for PlayStation 3 on Thursday, a multimedia initiative they call "Life with PlayStation."

THE VERDICT by Jack Loftus Jack Loftus's Avatar Say it with me now: It's the GAMES, stupid! But seriously, if this is the direction Sony thinks it's got to take with the PS3 to make money, then so be it.

Comments [102]

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Toneman

Downloads are great for renting, but not for buying. I would MUCH rather have a hard copy of the movie.

MaulerX

PS3 lost 3.3 billion to date?? Ouch! That's more than 3 times the ammount M$ lost on the RROD. Like the verdic says, if this helps them make money then so be it.

ETito

What do the PS3 fanboys have to say about this after they bashed Microsoft for announcing the same thing. LOL!

kdiddy18

i like the service on the 360, i wish they'd offer some kind of unlimited rental subscription service like netflix...

kdiddy18

I like the service on the 360, and im sure this will be exactly the same. I just wish one of them would offer an unlimited rental subscription service like netflix...

nayuan01

Freaking finally Sony!!! Took you long enough to add this service!! Seriously, this service works fine on XbL and I don't see why it should be any different on PS3. Been waiting for this for a while now. I concur with you kdiddy 18, they whould have an unlimited rental subscription a la netflix. Perhaps then I could bump my netflix subscription and get this instead.

Sire

I guess since there is buzz about netflix teaming up with the 360 to act as the Roku set top box, Sony feels it has to yet again push the PS3 into 360 territory. They just better do something about the download speeds or just stream like Netflix because it does take significantly longer to download on the PS3. I'm just curious to see what the hardcore fanboys will say because this was one of the things they always said didn't matter, or was stupid.[p] Personally, I love it. . I have gotten both standard and HD movies on the 360 and both are fantastic. . . This should be pretty cool.

Sire

By the way, there is already a mod out that let's your 360 act as the Netflix settop box. . .Some are saying that they might announce the real partnership with Netflix at e3.[p] So now does that mean that the Sony and the PS3 will partner up with Blockbuster??........That would be the best of both worlds for me.

AANTHUNDER

So what is the purpose of the PS3 blu-ray player if you are going to pimp DL HD movies on the PS3. All bulsshit aside Sony, you need to put out some games and stop f*cking around trying to please everyone else except the gamers.

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