With completely no warning and nil gilding the lily, Microsoft has abruptly shut down the power to purchase films and TV exhibits by way of its retailer on Xbox and PC.
Individuals turned conscious of this as they visited the story, solely to be greeted by error messages. Microsoft, in the meantime, had posted up a Q&A detailing the changes whereas they within the course of of truly making them.
when you try to entry the Motion pictures & TV retailer on Xbox it simply errors out after Microsoft’s sudden closure immediately https://t.co/RpCRmx7W9F pic.twitter.com/SbHMSeuOSH
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 18, 2025
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“Microsoft has stopped promoting new film and TV content material,” says the Q&A.
The excellent news – if it may be referred to as that – is you can nonetheless watch the entire exhibits and films that you just already purchased.
“You possibly can proceed to take pleasure in your present purchases utilizing the Microsoft Motion pictures & TV app in your Xbox or Home windows machine,” Xbox stated, whereas rapidly ripping down its personal storefront.
So far, Xbox and Microsoft haven’t issued any official assertion on why this determination was made, or why it was so sudden.
I’m going to imagine that the almost certainly motive is that the storefront simply wasn’t very profitable. Netflix, Amazon, HBO Max (or no matter they’re calling it as of late) and a bunch of different subscriptions fashions are the dominant power, and I can’t think about Microsoft’s film and TV storefront was driving loads of gross sales or leases in comparison with its working prices.
Nonetheless, it’s peculiar for it to be shut down so abruptly. On the very least, firms usually announce this stuff upfront, if nothing else as a result of individuals will typically panic purchase a bunch of stuff earlier than it closes.
That stated, I can not keep in mind the final time I used the shop.
It is also associated to Microsoft’s newest spree of layoffs, which has resulted in hundreds of individuals dropping their jobs.
