While Sony has experienced major success in the gaming industry with PlayStation, there have been a few missteps too. The conglomerate has announced that it will be shutting down the PlayStation Vue television subscription service on 30 January 2020 and will not allow new people to sign-up for the service until it is shutdown. Those still subscribed to the service will continue to have full access to it until its shutdown.
The announcement was made in a PlayStation.Blog post. SIE Deputy President John Kodera provided reasons for the cancellation of the service stating, “Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected. Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business.” This news comes after a report revealed that Sony has been looking for a buyer for PlayStation Vue but their efforts were fruitless.
PlayStation Vue was a television service that allowed users to stream different shows and live channels. It had been hampered by a small subscriber count and big price hikes. At its peak, it had 500 000 subscribers, which is a small number compared to its competitors.
While this is just another failed venture by Sony, it does not mean that they cannot try again. Though it was probably a good idea to shut down the service. It seems that everyone is getting on the Netflix bandwagon, which is making it a tougher market to succeed in.
