Doh! Someone’s going to be in trouble. Armored was only recently released in US cinemas and hasn’t even made it to the UK at all yet, but /Film is reporting that yesterday somebody accidentally made it available for download at the Playstation Store in the US yesterday, and worst of all was that for the five hours it was up, it was available to anyone who wanted it for free.
Although there aren’t any figures available for how many people took advantage of this rather major oversight, it’s believed a lot of US Playstation customers got a free copy of the movie before it was taken down.
The fact Armored had been uploaded this early to the store (no DVD release has been officially announced as yet), even if its wasn’t meant to be available, has led some to wonder whether it was supposed to be part of a new plan by Sony to release films earlier for download at a higher price. They’re already testing the waters with Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, which was offered to those with specially equipped Sony TVs and Blu-ray players a month before its DVD release for $25.99, with the idea being that even though that’s incredibly expensive for what is essentially a rental, it would attract those who’d have had to pay more than that to take the family to the cinema to watch it, but don’t mind shelling out that kind of money to watch it in the comfort of their own home.
It may well be that with its unique infrastructure of not only making electronic equipment but also having a movie studio to create content, Sony may be planning early, inflated prices offerings through the Playstation store as well through their TVs and Blu-ray player.
It was this sort of synergy between machines and content that electronics companies were looking for when they bought up Hollywood studios in the late 80s and early 90s (even when Sony bought Columbia they talked about offering films early to people with Sony TVs). At that time the technology wasn’t there to deliver the hoped for synergy, and most electronics therefore companies sold off their film holdings. However Sony has stuck it out with Columbia Pictures and it looks like they’re now in a position to make the synergy work, and are therefore testing out ways to make money out of it. However accidentally offering Armored to people for free, months before it’s meant to be out, isn’t going to help their profit margins at all.