Survey proposes Netflix service for Wii

by Andrew Yoon on Mar 20th 2009 5:40PM

Click to see the full-size screen capture.

Netflix may be looking to expanding their service beyond Xbox 360. According to a consumer survey mailed to a Joystiq reader, Netflix may provide their service to Wii owners. "Imagine that, as an added benefit to DVDs by mail, Netflix offers its members the ability to watch movies & TV episodes instantly on their TV via their Nintendo Wii, choosing from a library of over 12,000 choices.

According to the survey, the Netflix service will be enabled through a "Netflix Instant Streaming Disc." The disc would need to be placed in the Wii every time someone wanted to use the Netflix service. Unlike Microsoft, it appears Nintendo will not bundle Netflix into an upcoming firmware.

The existence of this survey doesn't necessarily mean Netflix support on Wii is confirmed. However, it does suggest the company has been investigating the possibilities. We're certain Netflix is eager to tap into the millions of Nintendo fans ready to try the streaming movie service.

[Thanks, Trey!]

Tags: netflix, Nintendo, survey, wii

Reader Comments (48)

O wow.

Netflix meet raging profit, raging profit meet Netflix.

That's a pretty...i don't know....ghetto way to implement it if it were being done.

Also, would you need to put in your friend code to access R rated content? :P

A very interesting method, though i don't know why you would need that disc. I mean, Netflix in this regard is just a glorified web portal with some sort of flash, right? Certainly nothing that isn't already running on Wii

You need the disc because, unlike the 360, the wii won't have enough space for the software/program to install on the wii. Why doesn't Nintendo just make a patch letting you watch DVDs so consumers can take even more advantage of the system? That will also encourage more people to sign up to netflix and get this program.

"You need the disc because, unlike the 360, the wii won't have enough space for the software/program to install on the wii."

Seeing how completely, ridiculously, unnecessarily bloated most commercial software is these days, you're probably right. I mean they can probably take a media player with download functionality and DRM that only really has to be like 10 mb at most, and blow it up to half a fucking gig. That's no fault of the Wii, though. People are just retarded.

Also, I think they announced some sort of storage fix for spring of this year, so maybe that will help.

The software download on 360 is about 3.5MB. Surely there's not enough space in the Wii to handle all that! My guess is the 360 already has all the codecs and whatnot in place, but even then if the Wii needs those also that'll push the file to what, maybe 30MB? A disc is so not necessary.

As far as the survey goes, what the hell are they second guessing? Wii install base is like 360 x infinity. (Okay not really, but it is substantially larger) I'm no genius but if the 360 netflix was a success with way less consoles out there, I don't see how it wouldn't be a good thing for em.

"Unlike Microsoft, it appears Nintendo will not bundle Netflix into an upcoming firmware."

That's because it's impossible.

See marcan's (famed Wii hacker) explanation here in "Why the Wii will never get any better."

http://hackmii.com/2009/02/why-the-wii-will-never-get-any-better/

@Deozaan: that guy is a fucking crybaby. Oh hey guys guess what? The Wii is not a PC! It's a game console, and Nintendo never stated otherwise (unlike certain other companies). I guess what this guy is saying no consoles before this generation have ever "gotten any better" during their lifetime because they couldn't even update their base internals at all, period! Fuck him.

It is not even that, I personally think it could fit on a SD card, and would much rather pay for a SD or just put it on the one I already have. That way I can keep a game in while using the Service.

Either way, My Aunt and Uncle only have a Wii for their kids, and they love it. Filling up a Que with a TON of Kids movies to watch for them Would be AMAZING! I think at least. I think I will buy some Netflix's stock once this roles around to hit, Jesus. For those of you that don't know the Wii fit a $90 peripheral, just out sold Halo 3 a game EVERYONE has who owns a 360, and Halo 3 been out a Year longer...OMG the money that would rain down upon them O_O

Why does the text above say $9.99 and the text in the attached screenshot say $2.99?

didnt they do a survey like this last summer or fall in regards to the PS3???

Wait, I'm paying $9.99 for WHAT? A disc? Good thing I have no problem hooking my laptop up to my plasma, because frankly, that's some bullshit.

Mr. Khan, I'm pretty sure they use Silverlight with some beefed up encryption.

A one-time fee of $9.99. That's a lot better than $50 a year.

"A one-time fee of $9.99. That's a lot better than $50 a year." -

No thats a one time $9.99 fee ON TOP of the monthly Netflix subscription to access the content. But at least unlike the 360 you can modify your Que on the same machine. Though i still prefer the HD content (what few it is though) through the 360.

agreed. If this comes out I am cancelling my xbox live.

Depends on your LIVE usage. If you only paid for gold to use netflix, then its a much better deal indeed.

To clarify, I just meant I find it odd and annoying that Netflix on 360 isn't available to Silver members like games with their own monthly fees are.

Who pays $50 a year?

(Waits for "why not Netflix service for the PS3" comments)

Why can't the disc install some sort of channel to the Wii menu?

Ya lets just take away MORE space from the Wii's already criminally small memory space.

Well F1, it would take up that space if the person wanted to add the channel, as opposed to buying a disc to insert when they wanted to use the service. Seems like that would be a nice choice for many people.

I agree with the post above, that would make more sense. Also I heard they have some sort of storage fix for this spring, maybe that will help.

It would be nice only if netflix had new movies on their download service! Did the 2 week trial on my 360 and just wasted my time. It really is a waste of money to stream them.

To fast forward, waggle right. To pause, waggle down.

waggle down and pause i believe is called edging

You wish you had thought of it first, don't you?

Moo!

They could easily retool their website to run on the Wii's web browser.

Much better option for the kids play room than a 360 which is pretty much wasted on the hand-me-down TV that can only do SD.

It does seem a bit strange that they're not distributing this via WiiWare, but I'll take it whichever way. I'd get this the first day it comes out.

If I'm not mistaken, the Netflix player is based on Microsoft technology, and was heading towards using Silverlight

owning a 360 and wii, i see no use for this, hell, i don't use netflix as is, but this may be helpful to some wii-only owners

I'm going to guess that Netflix went to Nintendo to propose a partnership, and they declined because they're already having a hard enough time finding places to stash their cash. So then Netflix was like "We've got to get in on this Wii shit", and realized they wouldn't be able to qualify for WiiWare. They then realized that they *could* get licensing rights for Wii software, however, and went for that.

I base this on absolutely nothing, apart from the fact that it's about the most rational explanation.

My guess is that the disc based thing is a DRM issue of some sort. Doesn't have to be logical, netflix service didn't/doesn't work over S-Video connections because of DRM restrictions. Either that or it is a workaround to get past some clause in a contract with MS.

I could see using this, we almost never rent films and the postal DVD services have little appeal due to cost and the way you need to manage lists.

Games can already access the SD card slot, and with improved read/write times downloading directly to that storage shouldn't be an issue and given there would likely be a fixed time limit during which you could view it's not like you need a large archive space.

Does the Xbox have an equivalent service in the UK presently?

I don't see what the problem with a disc is. If you used Netflix's regular mail service, wouldn't you have to put in a disc anyway?

i like this idea, as for the wii playing dvd's, whats the point? everyone has a dvd player... its not going to help move systems, but if you can pack in netflix and advertise the wii as a online movie box... it would be an interesting proposal, many companies have been trying to get this space going but theres been nothing as mainstream as the wii to have this type of functionality

(especially when you consider the amount of casual players/new people to video games to own a wii who may be very open to paying for streaming movies compared to high end gamers who 1. want the best tech 2. are fussy and would buy blu ray/dvd anyway 3. use a game system for one or two uses, video steaming not being a huge appeal to many gamers)

it could be huge and could finally get the market moving for these types of devices (apple tv etc)

I dont know about you but the least devices i have to have tethered to my tv the better....HT/cablebox/console/ if its a wii then you need to add dvd player to that unless your Ht has a built in dvd player. but still its no need for it not to be playing dvds. but hey i guess a game console is only suppose to play games just like a cell phone should only make calls right?

Not being "tech savvy" like many of y'all I have a question. What's the streaming rate of the Wii and would this be an issue. We have a Wii and it would certainly be something we'd be interested in.

Um rate?
You mean this as price or speed?

Price: From my knowledge there is no charged amount for streaming.
Speed: In the wii with a dedicated environment to streaming movies, I'm guessing the biggest factor would probably only be the speed of your internet connection.

If you want to test it's speed go to www.speedtest.net in your Wii browser, usually it's a little slower then it should.

Come on Sony, stop letting Nintendo and Microsoft take all the good stuff.

From GTA and Fallout 3 DLC to this, PS3 owners have been getting screwed lately.

Sony has to bring something good to the PS3 soon, or I'm gonna be pissed. And home doesn't cut it because it sucks

The price was $2.99 for the netflix disc NOT 9.99. How many of you morans need to go back to elementary school to learn to read.

If you notice, the above image says $9.99. When you click on the image to view the whole screen shot it says $2.99. Maybe you should stop calling people morans when I think what you were trying to say is "moron".

Moran - person with opposing view
Moron - person who is retarded

Please correct me if I'm wrong, Bob.

I'm gonna guess Netflix got trapped in some kind of Microsoft bullshit licensing and can't legally put Netflix on Wii. So they're using a disc to workaround their previous agreement with Microsoft.
There's probably a clause that does not allow a similar service on other systems besides the 360. It's like Microsoft to use sneaky underhand crap to keep things only on their system.

You know what just occurred to me?
Maybe the reason they decided to go with the disc is due to hacks and wad sharing over the internet...a disc would be much harder to hack or share over the internet.

take an sd card to best buy and pay 5 bux to have it loaded to the card and put in your wii. downloaded this to my xbox today, it took few seconds, and was free.

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Survey proposes Netflix service for Wii

Reader Comments (48)

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