Google says Lord of the Rings purchase access loss was a technical glitch, not a revocation

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TL;DR

Last week, a Google Play user reported that Google had revoked access to their purchased The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition trilogy.

The problem now appears to be a technical issue, as Google says the affected user should still have access to the films.

Google eventually issued the user a refund in the form of store credit. The user says they still can’t access the films.

Recent events are reminding us that purchasing digital content doesn’t necessarily guarantee access to that content in the future. Earlier this summer, Sony revoked access to more than 500 films sold through PlayStation’s digital storefront, leaving users who’d purchased the films unable to watch them. Last week, it looked like Google was pulling something similar, with one user’s digital The Lord of the Rings collection seemingly going missing. As it turns out, though, that situation is apparently due to some combination of technical issues.

In a Reddit thread that’s since been removed , user ugoindownsaka1 said that they’d lost access to the digital copies of The Lord of the Rings extended edition trilogy they purchased through Google in 2022. After some runaround with Google Play customer service, the user was initially denied a refund for the purchase. Now, though, ugoindownsaka1 reports not only that they’ve received credit equal to what they paid for the trilogy, but also that Google insists they do still have access to their movies.