• On TechRepublic: 10 lame phrases to cut from your resume
February 5, 2009 6:35 PM PST

One million Xbox 360 users tap Netflix

by Matt Hickey
  • Font size
  • Print
  • 20 comments
Corrected at 12:53 p.m. PST Friday, February 6, 2009, to indicate that Sony is available again via streaming and Netflix does not currently rent games.

While I'm both an Xbox 360 gamer and a Netflix user, I still haven't signed up for Netflix on my Xbox.

That's the unpopular stand, it seems, as Microsoft and the video rental site on Thursday announced that more than 1 million Xbox users have downloaded and activated the movie service since it was introduced on the game console in November of last year. That translates to more than 13,000 users a day.

Not only that, but members using the service have watched more than 1.5 billion minutes of streaming video.

But so far it's just movies and TV shows. It would seem the logical next step would be for the service to offer games for rent on-demand. This would be good for Netflix, but we're not sure Xbox would be on board do to the loss of licensing revenue it makes from game purchases. However, if some income sharing deal falls into place it could happen.

With more than 15 years experience testing hardware (and being obsessed with it), Crave freelance writer Matt Hickey can tell the good gadgets from the great. He also has a keen eye for future technology trends. Matt has blogged for publications including TechCrunch, CrunchGear, and most recently, Gizmodo. E-mail Matt.
Recent posts from Crave
Killer deals on BlackBerry, Droid, and Palm Pixi
This week in Crave: The boxed-in edition
Ricky Gervais helps reveal pain of cell phone salesmen
Indecent Exposure 68: Inky extents
Apple fixes AirPort problems marring video playback on 27-inch iMacs
iPhone: The board gamer's paradise
Can erasing your iPhone's memory improve performance?
Top 5 best products of the fall
Add a Comment (Log in or register) (20 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
by user256 February 6, 2009 12:06 AM PST
Matt, for some time now Sony movies have been available to watch instantly on the 360, and Netflix has never offered video game rentals.
Reply to this comment
by forever4now February 6, 2009 2:24 AM PST
Ultimately, ALL media (movies, music, games, books, etc.) will be available through online media stores/websites. The associated industries need to push toward open standards, so that this media will work on any software platform (Windows, Linux, OS X, etc.) and any hardware platform (PC, game console, set-top box, TV, smartphone, etc.)...albeit with different performance characteristics. This would greatly simplify the production, distribution and usage of the media.
Reply to this comment
by bullet25 February 6, 2009 7:56 AM PST
i belive this will happen also but the only problem is everyone connection speed, some people still have dial up.
by newsjeff February 6, 2009 4:13 AM PST
As a Sony PS3 owner, I hope Netflix will consider adding the PS3 for playing the movies.
Reply to this comment
by NPGMBR February 6, 2009 7:06 AM PST
Its not up to Netflix. Look to Sony to solve that problem!
by ibeetle February 6, 2009 8:08 AM PST
What is wrong with watching thousands of movies and television programs stremed through the Playstation 3 with Hulu, Joost and YouTube?

You get about the same full screen quality as XBox/Netflix movies and you do not have to pay $50 a year for a XBox Live account.
by ibeetle February 6, 2009 8:20 AM PST
@NPGMBR

Sony is not likely to "solve" that problem anytime soon. Reed Hastings, Netflix founder and CEO is holds a seat on Microsofts board. Microsoft purchased, purely for investment reasons 1% of Netflix stocks. Netflix streaming service uses Microsoft Silverlight. Microsoft is almost certainly not going to license Silverlight to Sony anytime soon.
by soutrik93 February 6, 2009 4:17 AM PST
Netflix also rents video games? sony movies are blocked?
something tells me you had never heard of a) Xbox 360 or b) Netflix before writing this article
you have 3 paragraphs in this article, 2 of them are completely incorrent
do some research next time
Reply to this comment
by count011 February 6, 2009 5:43 AM PST
Writer's commentary lacks research and depth of knowledge. Everyone please comment on how full of misinformation this article is and how much it should not be displayed on my Google news front page.
Reply to this comment
by jhebert121 February 6, 2009 6:28 AM PST
This writer has no idea what he is talking about refering to netflix as a video game seller and netflix via xbox 360 never offering sony studio titles. Matt you might want to look at editing this article to retain any integrity you currently have as a freelance writer.
Reply to this comment
by bullet25 February 6, 2009 7:19 AM PST
OK i am a Netflix user, gamefly user, and xbox 360 user and after reading this i look on netflix to see if I was missing something, i am not Netflix DOES NOT rent video games and i don't know where you even got that idea. gamefly rents video games and PSP UMD movies, ONLY PSP UMD movies. so if you are a Netflix users you better check what site you are actually using or stop spreading BS before posting. ALSO why would you not activate the xbox 360 streaming for netflix? unless you do not have Xbox Live Gold you should it only take 3mbs off your hard drive its not even a big deal. ALSO i have watched Sony movies on my XBOX 360 with netflix so please do research first. for all reason at least go the netflix.com even if you are not a user and see that they do NOT rent video games. ALSO last thing they does the "Netflix on my xbox" link take me to a search and not a post?
Reply to this comment
by ibeetle February 6, 2009 8:13 AM PST
From a marketing stand point I have always found it funny how some things resonate with consumers and yet similar services flounder or completely ignored.
Amazon offers unBox video streaming through TiVO and it flounders. Netflix offers an identical service and it considered a innovation.
Sony offers the ability to stream thousands of movies and television programs through its browser with Hulu, Joost and YouTube with similar picture quality of Netflix/XBox; even for free and yet even many PS3 owners are wondering when they can stream Netflix movies and/or completely unaware that they can stream video content from the web.
Reply to this comment
by hafenbrack February 6, 2009 9:09 AM PST
add to that the ability to browse there movie and tv collection on the PLayStation store as well.
by Akiba February 6, 2009 12:39 PM PST
From a marketing standpoint? That should be easiest part to understand. X-Box Live and Netflix has done a better of marketing itself in regards to the online multimedia experience than Sony and Amazon. Most consumers haven't even heard of unBox and don't know that Amazon offers such a service. When it comes to X-Box and Netflix it's the total opposite. Marketing is a big reason for that, but there's also the fact that many of these are existing Netflix customers who were just given a more convenient way to use the service. Not only was this backed by better marketing and an existing hegemony, but the service and the interface are considered superior by many. You can enjoy the experience with Sony but it was not tied to together as well and it was not the highlight of their marketing strategy.
by Heebee Jeebies February 6, 2009 8:36 AM PST
If you want Netflix and Hulu on your PlayStation 3 try the $40 server program called Play On. I have been using it for a month new and have been very happy with it. I was able to stop using my Roku thanks to this little program. You are going to need a wired connection and a good computer to get the streaming working smoothly but a Duo Core system with 512MB of RAM will do it. Who doesn't have that this day and age.

http://www.themediamall.com/playon

Robert
Reply to this comment
by lang0502 February 6, 2009 9:53 AM PST
Are you getting Netflix mixed up with GameFly?

On-demand video game rentals? Are you insane? This doesn't even make sense. Loss of licensing revenue? It's not like Xbox titles can be ripped from a DVD and uploaded to the Internet for download. I think you have no concept of technology. I bet you think that Netflix just rips copies of DVDs and uploads them on the Internet for streaming. This content is coming from the actual movie studios, that's how this type of thing works. The studios get paid each time you watch a streaming video. Netflix is currently swallowing the cost of the rental fee in it's subscription model and hoping you don't watch "too much" streaming content that they take a loss on you.
Reply to this comment
by bullet25 February 6, 2009 10:06 AM PST
good point games in all likeliness cant be streamed. it would have to be a digital download to own.
by mgarc1125 February 6, 2009 10:26 AM PST
This article was either written in the past when Sony Pictures was still blocking Netflix streaming or it was written in the future when Netflix offers video game rentals. Either way, none of those are true in the present.
Reply to this comment
by spacydog February 6, 2009 10:45 AM PST
It's time for this author to quit his day job with all the misinformation in the article.

"With more than 15 years experience testing hardware (and being obsessed with it), Crave freelance writer Matt Hickey can tell the good gadgets from the great. He also has a keen eye for future technology trends. Matt has blogged for publications including TechCrunch, CrunchGear, and most recently, Gizmodo."
Reply to this comment
by junadlao February 6, 2009 11:23 AM PST
Don't they have a sort of Chief Editor in these technology blog sites??!

Such an obviously misinformed "freelance technology writer" should be limited to writing articles that he actually is knowledgable of. If he is at all knowledgable of any field.

Netflix offering video games???

Sony movies being blocked???

Nowadays, they have what they call the internet where you can do something they call "google" and quickly find out what the facts are from me BS.
Reply to this comment
(20 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next

About Crave

The name says it all. Crave is our blog about gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. If you would like to contact Crave with a tip or comment, please write to: crave@cnet.com

Add this feed to your online news reader

Crave topics

A CNET Conversation with Eric Schmidt

CNET's Tom Krazit and Molly Wood sit down with Google CEO Eric Schmidt to discuss the future of Android, the Chrome OS, the problem of real-time search indexing, and more.

Verizon tests sending RIAA copyright notices

The No. 2 phone company, known for its reluctance to intervene in antipiracy cases, strikes an agreement to forward copyright notices on behalf of the music industry.