By: Kyra Glass von der Osten

Kyra Glass von der Osten — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:31:25 +0000

Thank you so much for your comments. My entirely unscientific anecdotal research is that many people only own a Wii console and also use Netflix, but I completely agree that whether or not they use their Wii to watch instant streaming video is yet to be seen. I also agree that Netflix has more on the line but depending on how the merger is handled I can see this making sense for the Wii. The Wii’s presets channels for weather and news hint at the potential of it being, as you’ve said, a “lifestyle hub.” Having a Netflix channel could be part of this, the bigger challenge I see is users having to request the disc and put it in every time they want to use instant streaming, ideally futures versions of the Wii would have a native channel which is how XBox does it.

By: Myles McNutt

Myles McNutt — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:18:24 +0000

Some good analysis here, although I’m wary about the idea that the same type of people who are using the Wii as an exercise machine will use it as a conduit for movie rentals. I would tend to classify Wii’s strategy as a “Lifestyle” console, whereas Sony and Microsoft are creating “Multimedia” consoles – both can include movie rentals, but I wonder if the casual audience who primarily owns Nintendo machine are going to be the type of people who use Netflix. While there’s definitely a chance for Netflix to open up a new market here, I wonder whether the Wii’s non-traditional gamer might actually be less likely to see their console as a movie device. It seems like a tricky non-lateral move in comparison to how it was sold for Microsoft and Sony, so I’m curious to see how Netflix (who has more at stake here than Nintendo) handles it.

Comments on: Could the New Black Box be White?

By: Kyra Glass von der Osten

By: Myles McNutt