The Nintendo Wii could get a movie and TV streaming service as early as this year, according to Curt Marvis, president of digital media for Lionsgate.
The Nintendo Wii can’t play DVDs (or next-generation Blu-ray discs), and it can’t display content in High Definition. It also doesn’t have a hard drive to store large movie files on.
While this has kept the price of the Nintendo Wii low (until now), it has proved a clear weakness against its rivals the Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360. Both have online services that allow gamers to not only download and try out games, but also download movies and TV shows too, often in High Definition.
Marvis, speaking to Variety, said: “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.”
Nintendo is already known to be working on a more limited video service in Japan (producing its own content). Marvis’ comments imply that Nintendo is thinking bigger than that. And with more gamers on the Wii than any other console, a video service for the Nintendo Wii would be a big deal – Microsoft’s Xbox Live service already comes second only to iTunes in terms of movie downloads.
What about the problem of storing movies on the Nintendo Wii though? Marvis specifically used the word “streaming”, which implies that movies would not be stored on the Nintendo Wii, but simply sent in realtime to the console over the Internet. The problem there would be movies would come in lower quality even than standard TV/DVD.
The alternative possibility – a hard drive for the Nintendo Wii – has been persistently rumoured. But right now, Nintendo’s official line is that such talk is just “rumour and speculation.” If the Nintendo Wii is to get movies and TV, then a device to download them onto would make good sense.
