The long-whispered rumors turned out to be true. Sony today announced in a blog post that it is shutting down PlayStation Vue.
The streaming service — one of the first one what we'd consider to be the major streaming services alongside Sling TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV Now (the former DirecTV Now) and Hulu — PlayStation Vue long suffered under the weight of its own name. That is, folks forever were thinking you had to have a PlayStation account to use it.
PlayStation Vue launched in the spring of 2015. At the time of its demise it had dozens and dozens of channels — about as many as any of its biggest competitors — and plans ranging from $50 a month to $85 a month.
From the blog post:
Over four years ago, we made a bold decision to change the rules and revolutionize the traditional TV-viewing experience in the U.S. with PlayStation Vue. We set the bar high and sought to innovate an established industry by delivering a modern TV experience. By completely rethinking live and on demand television, we offered an incredible user experience that allowed viewers to discover and watch content in completely new ways.Today we are announcing that we will shut down the PlayStation Vue service on January 30, 2020. 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.PlayStation fans can continue to access movie and TV content through the PlayStation Store on PS4 and via our partnerships with top entertainment apps. With 100 million PlayStation 4s in the market today, our community continues to grow and thrive. We will continue to deliver the best entertainment experiences across the network, along with other key gaming services, including PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus.We are very proud of what PlayStation Vue was able to accomplish. We had ambitious goals for how our service could change how people watch TV, showcasing PlayStation's ability to innovate in a brand-new category within the Pay TV industry. We want to thank all of our customers, some of whom have been with us since PlayStation Vue's launch in 2015.We appreciate your continued support as we move through this transitional period and look toward the future.
