Sony has produced a monthly video magazine for its PlayStation 3 since 2008 called Qore (pronounced "Core") that features interviews, previews, and concept art for upcoming PS3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation Vita titles.  Everything from God of War III to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow to Bionic Commando has been spotlighted on Qore, plus the series offered access to beta versions of upcoming games (beta invitations for titles such as Resistance 2, ModNation Racers, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves were all handled via Qore) and tossed out the occasional free PS1 classic download or PS3 theme each month.  This stuff wasn't free, of course; PSN members had to pay a per-episode fee to download the program or buy into a yearly subscription.  Starting in 2010, however, PlayStation Plus subscribers could access Qore for free each month.  Given that perk, why would one want to buy into just Qore when buying into PlayStation Plus offered additional extra freebies and bonuses over just a subscription to the video magazine?  It would seem that Sony realized that Qore just isn't profitable anymore as an ongoing product and has pulled the plug on the production.  Here's the PlayStation Blog quietly and underwhelming announcing the cancellation at the end of the promotion for the program's forty-eighth episode.

With this April episode, Qore concludes its run on the PlayStation Network. Our thanks to all involved in the creation and production of Qore and to the many fans who regularly watched each month.

Qore's fate is unsurprising.  Sony is having major financial problems and has to cut fat wherever it can, plus Qore's better benefits migrated over to PlayStation Plus itself not long after the latter launched.  Subscribing to just Qore only gets one the video interviews these days, and while those are interesting, they tended to be a bit high on marketing hype compared to alternative news sources.  I subscribed to Qore for over a year and enjoyed the freebies, but I let the subscription lapse when I joined PlayStation Plus.  I bet I'm not the only person to do so.  I doubt that Qore was pulling its weight at Sony anymore, and while it's a shame to see it go, I think it's time had come.