Netflix streaming available on Wii this spring

by JC Fletcher on Jan 13th 2010 1:47AM

After years of rumors and an encouraging statement from Netflix's CEO, it appears to be official: the Nintendo Wii will gain the ability to stream content from Netflix's "Watch Instantly" selections. The New York Times reports that the companies will announce the deal later today.

Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime called the addition of Netflix functionality "a continuation of an effort to bring more and more entertainment to consumers who interact with the Wii." The AP notes (via Engadget) that, like the PS3's implementation of the service, Netflix on Wii will require an "instant streaming disc."

[Thanks, Ridgecity]

Source

Tags: netflix, Nintendo, streaming, streaming-video, Wii

Reader Comments (55)

Operation: Dumbo Drop viewings go through the roof.

Obscurity: admired. +

Oh god, more whining about a disc now.

I don't mind the disc, but I do about the interface. Maybe it's because I've been using it on the 360 for a longer, but I think it has the best so far. The PS3 is ok and all, but I bet it'll look the worst on the Wii for whatever reason.

Well yea it'll definitely look the worst on the Wii, there is no HD on Wii obviously so it wont have the wonderful crispness and fluidity of Roku/360/PS3, etc. Not to mention no HD streaming for anything.

I don't know what I'm more upset about. The disc or the duct tape.

Guess that 360 contract really ran out

Not yet....and that's why they have to use the disks

The streaming may not be all that high of quality, but it's instant movie streaming nonetheless.

Nice to see Netflix expanding their market! I love their service since they started the 360 streaming and now my parents can use it too! I'm guessing they might use the Safari browser to get this to work but hey, the Wii's browser actually isn't all that bad. It's definitely much better than the PS3's browser. But seriously Netflix is an awesome deal, for like $12 you can get a Blu-Ray out and stream as much as you want! Also keeping in mind that renting Blu-Rays is much better than buying them as most are way overpriced and just up-scaled from their DVD counterpart.

The Wii benefits from this more than the other consoles considering it's the only one that doesn't play DVDs and doesn't have a movie and tv show rental/purchase service of its own.

The Wii isn't HD capable, that means your going to be watching SD on your big 40" TV's.

We've been watching SD films and SD TV for years now. There is nothing wrong with the quality. Get off your HD high-horse.

Have you SEEN high-horse racing in HD? That's what sold my wife on it...

HD is hardly a high horse at this point. It's more like a regular horse and you SD folks are riding donkeys.

Crazy kids with their high defs and color televisions. I have a 13" black and white tube, and my commodore 64 looks fine on it! Get off your high horse!

When I was a little girl in Poland, we all had ponies. My sister had pony, my cousin had pony, ..So, what's wrong with that?

Captain, I know you're making a Seinfeld reference, but I can't remember the rest.

The Wii's userbase is almost as big as Sony and Microsoft's combined, so this is a massive win for Netflix. And folks, most of the Wii's userbase couldn't give a rat's ass about HD, so that's really not up for discussion. Big news for Netflix and for Wii owners.

One could also say that a majority of Wii owners don't give a rat's ass about streaming movies (or doing anything besides gaming) in general.

I mean, that's kinda how Nintendo positioned the Wii from jump - strictly as a game machine.

Perhaps, but for one month free and $8.99 + tax (minimum) to keep a monthly subscription, it's pretty inexpensive to find out if they like it.

Plus, it's cheaper than cable.

All that is left is for Netflix to negotiate better streaming deals. Although streaming selection is fairly broad and appealing, there's still too much stuff (usually stuff a great deal of people care about) that is DVD/Blu-ray only.

Just finished watching 'The Usual Suspects'. I'd heard the twist long ago, but it was still awesome. I give it 17/13 hats, mostly helmets.

There's a twist? Thanks for ruining that movie...

This site is great, you guys get your news so quickly!

Fantastic news. I'll stick with streaming from my 360, but more options is always a good thing.

It will look like ass guaranteed, the Wii's audience get's off wagging they probably think compressed 480p looks great.

Guaranteed ass? I didn't think Netflix streamed porn.

"Guaranteed Ass" is still a pretty vague title. I'd wait and read the reviews on Joyshtick before viewing.

I think this is great news for both netflix and nintendo. I figured this would happen eventually because I had to call netflix's support on help with getting my PS3 to play the service and I commented on how cool it would be to for it to be on wii. the support guy responded " we're working on it."

One time... I had to call Nintendo support... and mentioned how cool it would be if Wii played DVD's (as useless as it would be to me... oh and I know about homebrew DVD playback... That's why I had to call them.... for some reason my Wii wouldn't read discs after that :O ) and the rep said the same thing "we're working on it"

Microsoft might need to rethink the "Netflix if you have Gold only" option now that you'll be able to use a PS3 OR Wii, not to mention a PC, to stream Netflix.

If I didn't have Gold for other reasons, I might just use the Wii for Netflix. ALthough, it might be worth it to get the Wii disc to stream in the event of a RRoD

*knocks on wood*

=\

at least they finally took this off the xbox netflix page: "Xbox 360 is the only game system that lets you instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix."

Guess I'll get this disc as well....its a good step for them and I know their shareholders are happy, cause I'm one of them!!

I wonder if Netflix on Wii will have a built-in solution this fall like the PS3 will....

HD streaming is one of the biggest improvements in the service in the past year. It'll be nice to have for Wii-only users, but still crippled like most things on the Wii.

its not crippled....hell you DO realize that the "Wii-dience" tend to have an SD tv right? my grandma and aunt could care less about an HDTV

"Tend to?" Are you saying that 51% of Wiis are attached to SD only TVs? I'm confident the the vast majority of TVs being sold are 720p minimum. If you can't reach that standard, your hardware is crippled.

Also, just because something works for 1080p doesn't mean it can't work in 480i. PS3/360 do this, of course. Nintendo does thus their Netflix streaming solution is inferior.

Unless, of course, they get 1080i or so streaming. I'd eat my hat on that.

It's not a matter of TVs being SOLD it's a matter of TV install base. Not everyone sees a need to replace a perfectly functioning 10 year old TV.

And the Wii is an option, not a handicap. Not everyone cares about HD. Heck, I still watch VHS because I didn't rush out and waste money on replacing all my movies in DVD (some, but not all).

you can sell all the HDTVs you want...hell I have 4....but that number still doesn't outweigh the number of SD TVs sold until they were phased out last year....fact is MILLIONS of people STILL don't own HDTVs....now 10-15 years down the road, I'd be will to bet that around 10-15% of homes in the US don't have HDTVs simply because older TVs are dying out and they need to replace them with something...but as of right now....thats not the case....I know plenty of people that have PS3's, 360's, and Wii's on SDTVs....some of which JUST bought those TVs as they were being clearanced out over the last couple of years and with the life expantcy on those being 7 years+ they wont have an HDTV soon simply because they dont care about them

It's still crippled. The fact that many Wii owners have SD TVs is meaningless because there are still millions that DO have HDTVs. And for those owners the service is crippled.

I still think this is a good idea though. This will benefit many Wii owners and Netflix themselves, it just won't be as complete a service as is available on other devices.

Do people really see that many SDTV's in action? I almost never see them at friends/family/colleague's homes unless they're over the age of 70 or under the age of 5.

Blue Ocean, I guess? haha

In the end, Netflix streaming on the Wii will be the poorest of options against TV's with it built in, set-top boxes, PS3, 360 and PC. Nintendo crippled their hardware from the outset and this will continue to be the result. A comparatively poorer customer experience.

sadly not everyone can see the value of an HDTV, i.e. my Mom, Aunts, Grandmother, and a few cousins who all have perfectly working SD TVs....and all are under 70....a few of my aunts are under 45....so yes I see SDTVs all the time...

as for Wii owners that own HDTvs feeling like its a crippled service.....well they are the ones with the Crippled HDTV thanks to ONLY having a Wii connected to it. Fact is there are PLENTY of ways to get HD Netflix streaming...hell they could just as easily go buy a Roku HD box....they knew the Wii wasn't in HD when they bought it.

You argument just doesn't seem to make any sense nor serve any purpose. Yes, these people knew the Wii couldn't do HD, but that doesn't make the Netflix service any less crippled... it's just the reason why. I'm not really sure why you're even attempting this argument. The Wii Netflix service won't be as good as on other devices. Period. You can call it what you want, but that's just how it is. Will it matter to everyone? No. And I'm sure it will serve many people just fine, but there's no getting around that fact that the other devices do it better.

ROFL well written +1

My Wii is only ever hooked up to SD tvs, so this is great news. I'll get a HDtv and a 360 to call my own eventually, but this will give me another option besides watching the streams on my PC.

When you do get an HDTV be sure to get component cables for your Wii and set it to 480p... ignore what everyone else says.. it makes a huge difference.... going from interlaced to progressive scan is a HUGE jump. Same reason why 720p is almost always preferred over 1080i. Oh and 360 looks way nice on an HDTV... honestly I try to avoid using an CRT SDTV for anything anymore. Even SD signals... still looks better on my HD

I've done a fair amount of 360 playing on an HDtv, I just don't have either.

use PlayOn from themediamall.com... problem solved...

Watch this will drop when the Gamers Development Conference starts.

When is GDC anyways?

This is great, as I can keep the Wii upstairs on the SDTV for the wife to watch Netflix with, and can use the PS3 downstairs on the HDTV. The more TVs with Netflix streaming, the better.

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Netflix streaming available on Wii this spring

Reader Comments (55)

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