The Digital Home

The Digital Home Podcast is back! After a looooong hiatus, Don Reisinger is ready to get back in the saddle and take on hot tech topics once more. Check it out! Oh, and sorry about the sound. That will be fixed next week.

Shownotes for episode 201

Report: New wireless adapter for Xbox 360 to cost $100

Netflix CEO hopes to stream to PS3, Wii, iPhone

Lessons learned: Switching to the TiVo HD

This week's cool site: Google Books. Check out my hands-on look here.

And as always, follow me on Twitter!

Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO

(Credit: Netflix)

Although it has no immediate plans to do so, online video rental service Netflix is hoping to bring its video-streaming service to Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, and Apple's iPhone, CEO Reed Hastings said in a recent interview with Reuters.

Hastings told Reuters that his hope is that Netflix's streaming service will eventually "be on all the game consoles, all the Blu-ray players, (and) all the Internet TVs." But as Hastings pointed out, his company has signed a deal with Microsoft to deliver Netflix streaming exclusively to the Xbox 360 in the video game space.

The chances of that changing anytime soon are slim, though Hastings said his company is "working in parallel" to achieve his goal of bringing Netflix streaming to all the aforementioned devices. While Netflix is likely to offer such a service on the iPhone and iPod Touch "over time," he said there is little chance of Netflix video streaming becoming available in the App Store "in the short term."

Despite rumors indicating that a Netflix app is already on its way to the App Store, Hastings would not give a timetable: "(With) movie watching, we are not focused on mobile yet, but (instead) on the TV, on Blu-ray, and on the video game consoles. We will get to mobile eventually, including the iPhone."

Hastings also chimed in on the recent announcement that Blockbuster might be closing up to 960 retail locations. He told Reuters that the closures "don't really benefit" Netflix.

Netflix's focus, Hastings, said, is on streaming video and maintaining a big catalog of available titles. Blockbuster, he said, "competes on doing the inexpensive new releases." He said Redbox would be the company that would benefit most from the closure of Blockbuster stores.

Updated at 9:30 a.m. PDT Wednesday to add comment from Konami.

Reports surfaced on Monday that video game company Konami won't be publishing a title from Atomic Games called Six Days in Fallujah.

According to a report by Japanese newspaper Asahi, which cited an unnamed public-relations representative, the negative reaction to the game compelled Konami to drop it. (Editors' note: the report is now missing from the Asahi Web site. Konami spokeswoman Marisa Gross confirms that "Konami will not be publishing Six Days in Fallujah," and the game title is missing from Konami's listed lineup.)

Six Days in Fallujah creates controversy.

(Credit: GameSpot)

"After seeing the reaction to the video game in the United States, and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell it," the unnamed source told Asahi. "We had intended to convey the reality of the battles to players so that they could feel what it was like to be there."

Six Days in Fallujah takes players to the infamous battle waged in Iraq in 2004. The game is based on documentation, including videos, photographs, and diary entries, taken from veterans of the battle.

The battle for Fallujah claimed the lives of 38 U.S. troops and approximately 1,500 Iraqis. But whether or not Six Days in Fallujah is really appropriate is up for debate. After the game was first announced, outcry erupted all over the U.S. Konami and Atomic Games were facing off against veterans and those who lost loved ones in the battle.

Last week, I wrote about The Godfather II game, which features topless women. I argued that the nudity was unnecessary and gratuitous.

After reading through the story, some readers debated whether in-game nudity objectifies women. Both sides make a compelling argument.

One reader, "CrimsonCantab", said "female nudity...is unneeded and degrading to women. Pornography is shown to have many negative side effects, like reduced fidelity in marriage. There's already too much of it on the Internet, and I find it harder and harder to be a gamer when games are headed in the same direction."

"Renegade Knight," on the other hand, wrote that "the problem isn't the nudity so much as the reaction to it. Clearly, it's a problem for some people."

M or AO? You decide.

EA sent me a copy of The Godfather II for the PlayStation 3 last week. A Godfather trilogy fan, I was excited to see how the game would turn out.

After escaping from Cuba, I was ordained the Corleone family's New York boss and set out to take over some turf. The first place I was told to capture was a bordello. I had to make it clear to the owner, through violence, that I was now in-charge. After a short drive, I walked through the "front" business and proceeded into the brothel. I was greeted by a woman offering me sexual favors. But there was something special about this prostitute. Unlike the dozens I'd seen in the Grand Theft Auto series, this one was topless.

It wasn't the first time a woman has been shown nude or partially nude in a video game. Nudity in gaming dates back all the way to the Atari 2600 when Mystique, a "Swedish Erotica" video game developer, started making adult titles for the console.

Since then, nudity of some kind (breasts, buttocks, or full frontal), has remained an infrequent occurrence in the industry. The vast majority of games containing nudity have been released on the PC, but some titles have found their way to consoles (here's a full list).

So, The Godfather II isn't unique. But nudity played an important role in this game. In fact, it was its only memorable feature.

I've been tough on Sony over the past year for the mistakes I think it has committed with the Playstation 3. I'm a firm believer that Sony should bring the price of its console down and drop the price of Blu-ray players to make its format more appealing to consumers.

But just because I believe that, it doesn't mean that there isn't any hope for Sony to turn things around. And I still believe that there's no debating that the Playstation 3 is probably one of the most capable devices on the market. But if Sony really wants to reach a position of dominance in the video game industry again and make people realize that it's offering a fine alternative to other products in the market, it needs to tie its future to the PSP.

Why the PSP? It's simple: Sony's handheld is an unbridled success that has caught some people off-guard. In the handheld market, it's extremely difficult for other companies besides Nintendo to gain a foothold. But in just a few short years, the PSP has been able to persevere through its rough start and become one of the most popular devices on the market.

Realizing that, Sony needs to make the PSP a central focus in its strategy going forward. If the company won't drop the price of the Playstation 3, the best way to bring more people to its console is to use the PSP's huge installed base to its advantage.

In a recent interview with Videogamer.com, Sony managing director Ray Maguire told the publication that although the company is feeling pressure to reduce prices, it shouldn't be forgotten that Sony "has a business to run" and needs to "do the right thing" for its shareholders.

Maguire is obviously right on both fronts and makes two points that should be enough to make pundits and consumers satisfied. But then again, Maguire's comments smack of desperation and are a ludicrous departure from the gravity of the situation his company finds itself in.

I think consumers realize that Sony execs have a business to run and they need to do the right thing to ensure the company can stay profitable, but doesn't Maguire and the rest of the execs at Sony realize that doing the right thing isn't always keeping the price on the PlayStation 3 so high? Or doesn't Maguire and the rest realize that in order to do the right thing for its shareholders, Sony has a responsibility to be far more competitive and attempt to take control of the video game industry again?

Most consumers realize that's what needs to be done and I'm willing to bet that shareholders realize that too. Sony's responsibility as a public company isn't to "do the right thing." Sony's responsibility as a public company is to maximize shareholder value and a part of that requires the company to make the right decisions. So far, Sony hasn't made the right decisions with the PlayStation 3.