After months of speculation it’s now official, soon users of the Nintendo Wii will be able to watch Netflix movies as well as TV shows instantly on their Wii video game console.
This will bring the Nintendo Wii in line with Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s X-Box both of which already have that level of functionality.
“Our research shows that 86 per cent of all US Wii consoles are located in the living room,” said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.
“The Wii console is the social hub around which friends and family members gather to play games and have fun. Soon both new and long-time Wii owners will enjoy the benefits of Netflix – and a variety of informational and entertainment options – by being Netflix members and connecting their consoles to the internet.”
Microsoft were first to offer Netflix on their consoles back in November 2008, Sony added the Netflix feature in 2009 and now at last it’s going to be available on the Wii too in 2010.
All that users of the Wii will have to do is subscribe to California based Netflix in order to be able to access the movies and shows and pop their “instant streaming disc” from Netflix into their console and away they go.
Netflix currently have thousands of movies and TV shows from a variety of distributors on their database with more being added all the time. Navigation of the Netflix movies and shows will be done using the Wii remote control.
Of course users will also have to have a Broadband Internet connection and the number of Wii consoles connected to the Internet at the moment is apparently far lower than the figures for the Xbox and the PlayStation.
Still, it opens up Netflix to a lot of new potential customers. Four months ago Netflix subscriptions stood at just over 11 million.
By making Netflix movies and shows available on the Wii, Netflix do stand to increase their number of subscribers even more. A subscription to Netflix is somewhere in the region of only $8.99 a month.
The instant streaming Netflix disc for the Wii isn’t quite ready yet but Netflix have set up a website so that users can order their disc now and the moment it is ready it can be sent out free of charge.
The discs for the Wii are expected to be ready in the spring.
