In this interview, "Netflix bolsters their hopes for success on the Wii platform by downplaying their HD content."
Netflix calls their own HD content streaming "underwhelming," downplaying its presence on other platforms, to emphasize the upcoming Wii service.
PCWorld’s Matt Peckham writes: Dear Nintendo, while I respect your president Reggie Fils-Aime’s decision to shrug off the Wii’s inability to do high-definition video as "no loss" in an interview with CNBC, I’m not sure you’re taking the long view.
Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, downplayed the Wii’s lack of support for HD content on its upcoming Netflix streaming service, set to launch this Spring. Fils-Aime believes Wii owners aren’t missing much, due to the fact that the majority of Netflix content is not available in HD.
Today, Nintendo of America and Netflix have announced that from Spring all Netflix users can view “thousands of movies and TV episodes” by streaming it to their Wii console at no extra cost to all their subscribers.
The service, which has also been avaliable on the Xbox 360 via the Dashboard, and the PS3 via a seperate blu-ray that members of Netflix can request, will be arriving on the Wii with the same catalogue that the other consoles receive.
Reed Hastings, CEO and co-founder of Netflix, says “Our goal is to offer Netflix members as many ways as possible to watch movies and TV episodes streaming from Netflix right to their TVs and to give non-members more and compelling reasons to consider the service. Joining forces with Nintendo, which has been so immensely popular with consumers since its introduction, is a very meaningful step in that direction.”
The service will work similar to the way it works on the PS3 with an optical-disk being inserted into the console, and once the software launches, users can browse and view the different titles from Netflix’s catalogue.
Sharing: It’s Win/Win
Today, Nintendo of America and Netflix have announced that from Spring all Netflix users can view “thousands of movies and TV episodes” by streaming it to their Wii console at no extra cost to all their subscribers.
The service, which has also been avaliable on the Xbox 360 via the Dashboard, and the PS3 via a seperate blu-ray that members of Netflix can request, will be arriving on the Wii with the same catalogue that the other consoles receive.
Reed Hastings, CEO and co-founder of Netflix, says “Our goal is to offer Netflix members as many ways as possible to watch movies and TV episodes streaming from Netflix right to their TVs and to give non-members more and compelling reasons to consider the service. Joining forces with Nintendo, which has been so immensely popular with consumers since its introduction, is a very meaningful step in that direction.”
The service will work similar to the way it works on the PS3 with an optical-disk being inserted into the console, and once the software launches, users can browse and view the different titles from Netflix’s catalogue.
Sharing: It’s Win/Win
SAN FRANCISCO – Owners of the Nintendo Wii can finally stop waving their video game controllers in the air and sink back onto the couch. Nintendo is bringing Netflix’s online streaming video service to its Wii gaming console, the most popular in the industry, the companies plan to announce Wednesday.
From the PlanetXbox360.com feature article:
"On November 17th, Microsoft released a new update on Xbox Live that allows all of us to have a new amount of latitude from the convenience of our Xbox 360’s. After bringing us the convenience of Netflix with the last update, this new update gives users the ability to Tweet, access Facebook and listen to music from Last.fm all through LIVE. I bet you don’t realize just what sort of stroke of genius this was on the part of Microsoft and how it will help push LIVE past Sony’s online offerings."
PlayStation LifeStyle writes, "Netflix has offered instant streaming for quite some time now. The Xbox 360 has enjoyed Netflix instant streams since late 2008. Additionally other consumer electronics devices support the popular streaming service. It was only a matter of time and a natural fit for the jack of all media, the PlayStation 3, to support Netflix."
Screen captures are included in this review.
Steven Burke at ChannelWeb writes:
"Here are three reasons why Sony’s PS3 is beating Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)’s Xbox 360 in the marketplace."
1. Sony PS3 Is A Better Value Than Xbox 360
Check it out. For $349.99 from Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) you get the new lighter and slimmer PS3 with a 250 Gbyte hard drive, built in Blu-Ray disc player (yes Blu-Ray!), built-in WiFi lets you access the Internet and the FREE PlayStation Network, where you can download exclusive games, movies, TV shows.
2. The PlayStation Network Is Better Than Xbox Live
PlayStation got it right with its Free service to gamers offering unmatched games and game content along with robust Blu-Ray video content from Netflix and major studios.
3. PS3 Is A More Reliable And Better Engineered Product Than Xbox 360.
Yes, engineering and reliability matter particularly for hard core gamers that are banging on a system day in and day out.
Before this generation of consoles, most people saw their gaming console, cable box, and computer as completely separate things, but I never knew why they had to be. I always yearned for some kind of “Awesome box” that does it all, and this console cycle is bringing us closer to my dream. The Awesome Box will be the first product designed for use in the living room that effectively handles television, video games, and some light computing functions. With features like Netflix, and the video marketplace, Microsoft seems to have the same idea. Today they take another step closer with the launch of Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, and the Zune Marketplace for the Xbox 360.
Much like the movie Cloverfield, Facebook on the 360 sounds cooler than it is. Microsoft hasn’t realized yet that those boxes they’ve become so fond of since the launch of the NXE just don’t work for everything. Navigating through your friends’ updates feels clunky, and while you can reply to someone’s status update, and like it, you can’t visit links. I have to admit that viewing my friends’ pictures on the TV was nice, but it just wasn’t enough to convince me I should be using Facebook on the 360 over the PC. The one feature I really enjoyed was the ability to see which of my Facebook friends have gamertags, and which of my XBL friends have Facebook accounts. Unfortunately this does require that your friends have linked their Facebook and XBL accounts.
Last.fm is a great way to find new music. You pick an artist, genre, or song you enjoy, and Last.fm uses an advanced algorithm and magical pixie dust to create a station you’re sure to enjoy. For the most part, it does a pretty good job.As a punk rock fan, I created a NOFX station which Last.fm populated with punk staples like Pennywise and Rancid, as well as some obscure bands I never heard of before. The 360 app also came preloaded with a few video game oriented stations, including one that plays nothing but songs from video games, and one based around The Minibosses – if you don’t know who they are, then you should stop reading this, and go listen to some of their music right now. Seriously, this article will still be here when you come back , and you’ll be a better person for the experience. I would have liked to see visualizations included in the app. Musicians aren’t always attractive people, and the looping slide show of pictures of the band currently playing can get old pretty quick. It’s also kind of a bummer that you can’t use Last.fm in game. It’s a separate app, and as such, if you want to do anything else with your 360, you’ll have to leave the music behind. Despite it’s shortcomings, the Last.fm app is a great way to discover some new tunes you might like, and a welcome addition to the Xbox 360.
The one and only tweet made from my Xbox 360 was “Tweeting from the 360…. not worth the effort”. While browsing your friends’ updates, and picking one to reply to is fairly smooth, the actual act of tweeting, even with the chatpad, is extremely cumbersome. The beauty of Twitter is that it’s a quick and simple way to communicate with other people. Twitter on the Xbox 360 makes a quick and simple process long and tedious. One hundred and forty characters never seemed so long before.
The Zune Marketplace takes video on the Xbox 360 two steps forward, and one step back. The ability to stream 1080p movies and TV shows is a most welcome addition to the 360. The video starts playing the instant you click on “stream”, and after a few seconds of artifact-heavy playback, the video quality jumps up to full 1080p. I have to admit, I didn’t expect such quality out of a streaming video feed, and fast forwarding and rewinding exceeded my expectations as well. Once you hit the spot in the video you were looking for, the video starts playing instantly. As with the start of each video, there are a few seconds of low quality video after a fast forward or rewind, but most of the time, it doesn’t last long enough to get in the way of your enjoyment of the video. Unfortunately, game videos, episodes of The Guild, and other shorter videos weren’t given the streaming treatment. In fact, the only difference is now you have to load the Zune app before you can download them. If you watch a lot of movies on your 360, the Zune Marketplace is going to make your life just a little better, otherwise, it’s only going to get in your way.
So does this latest update make the 360 The Awesome Box? No. Each of the new features have quirks that keep them from hitting their true potential. Perhaps some of the issues present in these apps will be addressed in a future update, but as things are, the Xbox 360 doesn’t earn the title of The Awesome Box. For now, it will just have to settle for the less prestigious title of The Kinda Neat Box.
