"You'll still be able to access your content"
Yeah, until they release a new version of the launcher, or underlying framework, which prevents the old app to run, locking people out of the content they paid for.
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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If purchasing isn’t owning, piracy isn’t theft.
Microsoft had a movies and TV store?
They did. It was so awful with hardly any updates. I bought some things on it but usually when it was on major discount and connected to Movies Anywhere so I could watch it elsewhere.
I don't know why they had the same movie for sale... one with bonus features, one without... for the same price. Every other platform includes the bonus features automatically. Why separate them? Is there someone out there thinking, hmm... I like this movie, but I don't want the bonus features.
It was doomed to fail.
Movies Anywhere was the whole deal for me. With Microsoft connected, I used MA for its wishlist to indicate when things were on sale. Sometimes MS had a sale when other services did not! But that's it.
I own a couple that were only distributed in this region that way in an acceptable format for weird reasons related to localization. And then I moved internationally a couple of times and the Microsoft store REALLY isn't willing to understand that's a thing that can happen. It's been a bit of a mess and one of the multiple reasons to not use MS's store as a package/software manager in the first place.
They did this with "plays for sure" DRM protected music files too, way, way back. Never bought content of any kind from them after that and then killing Windows LIVE.
Just assume everything from them has a "destroy after" date set in the near future.
I remember when they killed their Games For Windows store and the games I'd bought on there just went poof. Never trust Microsoft to keep a digital storefront around, they'll delete it all at the drop of a hat.
Never trust Microsoft
Like with Bitcoin, not your keys not your coin. If you don't hold it you don't own it.
If you think about it: Microsoft owns XBox, that has been one of the three major consoles for decades now. They own Windows, the world's most popular operating system. They own Edge, one of the major browsers. And they still failed to create a movie and TV store and shut down their music streaming service. Which is totally insane - that shit was bundled with fucking windows and Xbox and they still made it suck so hard that it failed
Microsoft isn't popular by choice. They can't force people into shitty ecosystems if they have no reason to choose it to begin with. Microsoft was the only choice for decades, and will go down as the golden example of business monopoly.
Apple, amazon, google, all have their claws deeper in people because they make products people choose to use. They actually like the products, so the companies can slowly enshittify them and keep their users.
They actually like the products, so the companies can slowly enshittify them and keep their users.
They're just a few years behind Microsoft. At one time, people chose Microsoft just like people chose Google.
What was the other choice back then? I dont recall microsoft ever needing to compete for end users. Even now they barely have to put in an effort and are the most popular OS.
Linux, MacOS, BeOs, NeXTOS, OS/2, FreeBSD, Solaris.
There were more choices than today.
Those were pre-installed on end user devices and were popular in workplaces? If you have any material to share I could read about that time period that would be helpful as well.
MacOS, NextOS, BeOS, OS/2 and Solaris were all pre installed on end user devices. All except MacOS also were or became available as end user installs if you didn't want to buy it pre installed.
They weren't popular in workplaces ( except MacOS) because they all sucked in important ways compared to Windows.
There were also many alternative Office suites. MS didn't even invent the idea- they copied Borland's $99 software cost in order to compete. But again the alternatives, even if they started better, eventually fell behind Microsoft. MS was extraordinarily customer focused in those days.
Windows Powertoy apps used to come with the emails of the person who wrote it in the readme.txt. I once emailed the Microsoft developer about a feature that I thought should work but didn't ( copying across network vs local copy). I got a working beta version 3 days after emailing the developer at Microsoft.
Interesting, thank you for sharing. I'll have to read more about how things changed over time.
Don’t forget that they didn’t succeed on mobile phones either. Despite it was very fine OS and devices were good too.
Good except for the critical features they didn't add. Like when the iPhone didn't have copy-paste, but on a Microsoft phone, way later.
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Ahoy.
If you don't own the storage, you don't own the content. You're just renting it.
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Remember when Microsoft was telling shareholders that the Xbox multimedia ecosystem was going to dominate living rooms everywhere, then people stopped hanging out in their living rooms?
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I can see Microsoft just being the Azure company at this rate. Then they’ll have to charge what it costs to run and a lot of companies will wish they had stayed cloud agnostic.
The business is basically thirds last I looked. Windows, Office and Azure.
Not sure how their purchase of platform companies they shouldn't have been allowed to buy plays into that. Thinking LinkedIn and GitHub.
They already make money hand-over-fist on Azure. Cloud computing is already quite expensive
So the Microsoft brand is just for show and it's actually called Azure.
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First time I hear about this store...
I may have seen it, but it "felt wrong" from the start - never considered it anything of interest.
Me too lol
I never heard of it... News to me.
Wait.. they had a movies and TV store?
Oh well. They should have brought back the Zune. And my Nokia windows phone in bright yellow.
I liked Zune. Microsoft is the real killer of their own demise. They have great products/ideas, but they just torch them before they take root.
For what it's worth, Windows Phone was sort of a successor to that. And then they went and killed it too...
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Remember when Xbox required a Live subscription to use the any streaming entertainment app?
I distinctly remember them failing a console launch spectacularly by (among other things) trying to pass it as a media center and talking about how great it is to watch TV on.
Don't forget one needed to stay online with Xbox Live subscription even for basic functionality and gaming during XBOne's E3
Not to mention games were heavily reliant on DRM so you can't trade discs easily
Meanwhile Sony...
You'll still be able to access content. But for how long?
Laughs in 1200 disc DVD collection
laughs in 20tb raid10 multimedia storage
☠️
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