With completely no warning and nil gilding the lily, Microsoft has abruptly shut down the flexibility to purchase films and TV exhibits by way of its retailer on Xbox and PC.
Individuals grew to become 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 adjustments whereas they within the course of of really making them.
if you happen to attempt to entry the Motion pictures & TV retailer on Xbox it simply errors out after Microsoft’s sudden closure in the present day 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 known as that – is that you would be able to nonetheless watch all the exhibits and flicks that you just already purchased.
“You possibly can proceed to get pleasure from your current purchases utilizing the Microsoft Motion pictures & TV app in your Xbox or Home windows machine,” Xbox stated, whereas swiftly ripping down its personal storefront.
To this point, Xbox and Microsoft haven’t issued any official assertion on why this choice was made, or why it was so sudden.
I’m going to imagine that the most certainly cause is that the storefront simply wasn’t very profitable. Netflix, Amazon, HBO Max (or no matter they’re calling it nowadays) and a number of different subscriptions fashions are the dominant power, and I can’t think about Microsoft’s film and TV storefront was driving lots 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 these items 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’t bear in mind the final time I used the shop.
It may be associated to Microsoft’s newest spree of layoffs, which has resulted in hundreds of individuals dropping their jobs.
