Report: Wii may stream movies

Nintendo's Wii may follow Microsoft's Xbox and Sony PS3 into the film market.

On Thursday, entertainment trade publication Variety reported that an executive from film studio Lionsgate said the Wii could be equipped to stream movies as early as this year.

Are movies next?

(Credit: GameSpot)

"The thing that is clearly a force in digital are the game devices," Curt Marvis, president of digital media for Lionsgate, told Variety. "I think when we see the Wii come into the market with the ability to stream movies, which I think is maybe going to happen as soon as this year, I think that's going to be a big marketplace for digital distribution."

A Nintendo representative said the company doesn't comment on rumor or speculation.

The major film studios are fans of game consoles. People are used to thinking of the boxes as entertainment devices. The devices are connected to televisions so they own choice living room real estate.

Marvis didn't say that a Wii movie service was a done deal, but Variety noted that he's in a position to know "what's in the works."

[rollcage333]

Might be nice if you have it hooked up to a standard def: you won't have the choice to watch them in HD. On the other hand, I guess any move to spread movie streaming is a good thing. Personally, I think it would be better to wait until the next generation, when Nintendo hopefully releases a game console that can do HD.

[rayzoredge]

I thought that the focus of Nintendo was all about gaming. That's why they didn't opt for playing DVDs, or media streaming, or whatever. (I can see how another focus of that being less hardware cost, making the Wii much more affordable.) It would make sense to throw that option into the curve given the popularity of Wii consoles from a money-making opportunistic standpoint, but we'll have to see if Nintendo is actually going to follow the rest (360, PS3) into making the Wii an entertainment center machine.

[Renegade Knight]

They are probably looking at the 3rd place finish on games sold per unit. While the Wii sells, owners of the PS3 and 360 buy more games. That's where the bread and butter for a console maker lies. They have to do something to move these up the food chain since they don't make their money by selling the console. Yeah, I know they actually do make a small profit on the Wii...just not what they could be making if the thing did something.

[urackon]

Actually it was just reported that the wii has the same game to console ti -in ration as the ps3. That and that there about to ship their 50 millionth wii, a rate that will put its adoption even higher than that of the ps2

[gefitz]

Agreed with Rayzor...however, if you view it as a secondary use of the machine, I wouldn't mind having another source of video content around, even if it was in SD.

Maybe they focus on providing content that is older, and maybe not in HD format to begin with? Maybe distributors would see it as being a way to get more use of that "long tail" concept: make the distribution of content really cheap and it makes it feasible to get more titles out there.

[man_w_balls]

They would have to update the Flash player that accompanies the Wii Opera browser before you could watch just about anything but YouTube.
Unless they just built a new "channel" for movies that included its own player. But that's what the Homebrew Channel and GeexBox already do - I can play most media formats on there from a USB flash drive, so it's like a flash-based VCR.

[BGroup00]

I currently stream movies to my Wii by using Orb or Tversity and a dedicated external hard drive. So far I have received fairly good quality and reliability.

[Notoapplefanbois]

Still won't compete with XBox/Netflix though...

[rowdyguy124]

Of course not. Nothing can compete with xbox and netflix.... (Rolling my eyes!)

[MrMurder]

You couldn't watch anything on the Wii in HD 'cause it uses Standard Def.

[TCrimson05]

Yeah No HD. But If Nintendo would finally go ahead and update the Flash in the browser we could pretty much watch anything on the web. Orb also works, but sometimes it'll just stop right in the middle of a movie. I do like the idea some posted about a channel. They need one for game demos too. But before any of that they need a viable storage solution. I kinda have an idea. Like an external hard drive that is the same dimensions as the system that slides on the back of the usb video and power ports and has the corresponding outlets built in the back. And have a extended base to come packed with it. (simple) I should design a mock up and send it in to Nintendo lol think they'll listen?

[Nomad0404]

Ok - at the GDC yesterday the Wii received a software OS update so that it can us SDHC cards, that's upto 32 GB of storage. This means movie downloads now have somewhere to live. So 24hr movie rental rather than streaming becomes a possibility.

In addition to this the Wii has a component cable so can output in HD if required, I bet all it would take is update to the OS.

After all the XBox can do 720p.