Playstation EU video store LIVE

D1tchd1gger

Shrine Maiden
The video store from the Playstation Network is now LIVE. You can download and rent SD and HD movies to watch on your PS3 and/or PSP.

Press Release

What has this got to do with Anime you ask. Well among the studios invovled from the start is Starz, parent company of Manga Entertainment. Films available at the moment are:

Dead Leaves (SD rent only £2.49)
Dead Space: Downfall (SD rent only £2.49)
Hellboy: Blood and Iron (SD rent only £2.49)
Hellboy: Sword of Storms (SD rent only £2.49)
Macross Plus: Movie Edition (SD rent only £2.49)
Macross II: The Movie (SD rent only £2.49)
Street Fighter Alpha (SD rent only £2.49)
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (SD rent only £2.49)

Sony also have a few Animated Films on the store:

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (SD buy only £6.99)
Resident Evil: Degeneration (SD buy only £11.99! This might a mistake as some HD films cost this much)
Steamboy (SD buy only £6.99)

I'll assume most have these already in there collection, I certainly have most of the Manga Ent ones from the Manga Force collection. They say that there'll be about 50 films added a week so there maybe more to come. Oh and it's film only so no Xam'd :(
 
That's really cool. Hopefully, we will see good things coming out of this =D

Also, Sony owns Animax, which has the airing licenses for many good series. Hopefully, they can get these into the store sooner or later.
 
It is good that they are making these shows accessible this way, but I wont be buying due to my preference to owning an actual hard copy of shows I like.
 
Just Passing Through said:
Final Fantasy £3.84
Resident Evil: Degeneration £3.74
Steamboy £4.75

And SelectCheaper are listing the DC of Steamboy for £5.10, but it's out of stock, and will probably vanish as soon as an order is placed.

There I just saved you a wodge load of money.

And those Manga rental prices are taking the proverbial as well. You can buy those on DVD for less than a fiver each.
The prices are pretty bad, but I believe it will get adjusted as time goes by.
as of now, it's a new service and its unsure how to pric3e things up. That rental prices can get me a month subscription in certain places...
 
The thing is that these companies hire other companies for hundreds of thousands of pounds to do market research for them. How much does it cost for a market researcher to go on a price comparison website and do a couple of searches?

First impressions are what draw customers in, and if your first impression is a sky high price tag that's been pulled out of thin air, then customers won't exactly be popping back in haste hoping for common sense to have prevailed.
 
Just passing through....is that avatar from Desert punk?

And i think this is pretty good news. if not for the anime...then for the fact that its taken more than 9 months for the UK PSN store to catch up with the US one ¬_¬
 
Tachi- said:
Just passing through....is that avatar from Desert punk?

And i think this is pretty good news. if not for the anime...then for the fact that its taken more than 9 months for the UK PSN store to catch up with the US one ¬_¬

It's Mamimi from FLCL...


I would think it would be good news too, except there always seems to be some screw up from the beginning. Everytime, it's like they paint a criticism bullseye on their arses and say to punters, go ahead, give us a kicking. Same with Crunchyroll, same price subscriptions to everyone, but not everyone gets all their content. Simple things like this make me think that the morons have been given the keys to the private jet.
 
Just Passing Through said:
Tachi- said:
Just passing through....is that avatar from Desert punk?

And i think this is pretty good news. if not for the anime...then for the fact that its taken more than 9 months for the UK PSN store to catch up with the US one ¬_¬

It's Mamimi from FLCL...


I would think it would be good news too, except there always seems to be some screw up from the beginning. Everytime, it's like they paint a criticism bullseye on their arses and say to punters, go ahead, give us a kicking.

One one hand though....every program Sony gives us starts off running and in the first few days stumbles and lays on the floor for god know how long.

Just look at the Music Video program ¬_¬

But on the other hand....Sony can't screw up and piss off their fanbase or users anymore than Microsoft have to theirs in recent times :p
 
You know what it probably is, licensing costs. Sony has probably said to content providers, 'if you want to host video on our network, you'll have to pay a small fee.' I bet out of that £2.50, Starz/Manga is only making 10p per video.
 
What i'm worried about is when it says "Rent"

If i wanted to rent a film....i'd go to blockbuster or the library.
If those are the costs for renting and buying...i'll probably give 99% of their "stock" a miss.

Considering at first glance. Steamboy is £6.99 on the PSN store. Yet i can pick up a hard copy (DVD) from HMV for a Fiver. Somebody do the maths and calculate the likelyhood people are going to Rent or buy films off this if they know that their local high street will have the same thing, but not to rent. for less money, to keep forever and the disc will more than likely have extras.

Despite this brave effort....i think Sony have just screwed themselves....again.
 
As far as I know the prices match other such stores like iTunes and are set by the providers of the content, not Sony (apart from their films obviously)

I've rented 300 just to check out the quality. HD (1280x720) for this film was £3.49 same as Blockbusters, I'll tell you what think after I've watched. As newer HD films are £4.49 I think I'll be sticking with Blockbusters.
 
Not bad quality, but you could tell it wasn't Blu-Ray quality.

I'd rent again if there was an older film I wanted to check out, but for newer films I'll still use Blockbusters and I definitely wouldn't buy due to restrictions and lack of extras.
 
Spoke to Manga and I've got more news on the PSN store:

Manga said:
Thanks for your email. Not much to tell re UK launch of PSN. We have the following titles available:

Dead Leaves
Dead Space
Hellboy: Blood and Iron
Hellboy: Sword of Storms
Macross Plus: Movie Edition
Street Fighter Alpha
Street Fighter The Animated Movie

I am working with our digital team at Manga's parent company in the US, Starz Media to ensure we make all of Manga's "UK Only" licenses available on there soon. That will hopefully mean PSN users can access movies like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Origins and Ichii soon.
 
Back
Top