It has cross-generational appeal. The price is right. The game play is fun. Still, there is something missing from Nintendo’s Wii that does help the competition edge it out with certain buyers. That something is a video delivery service, something at least one analyst thinks may soon be on the horizon.Former Microsoft senior exec, Colin Dixon, who now works for The Diffusion Group, recently discussed the differences in consoles and content delivery.
"(Nintendo) Wii hasn't delivered any movie services, but once they do, and we expect them to do that, they will have a much broader set of content."
Evidence that Dixon’s prediction is correct is found in Japan where Nintendo plans to release a theater channel soon. No plans, however, have been discussed for a North American version – just yet.Speculation as to what Nintendo will do for delivery of content ranges from besting Xbox Live with an even broader array of programming to turning the devices into cable delivery boxes to compete with local providers. There’s also hope in the gaming community a firmware release might enable DVD use.
No matter how you crack it, if Nintendo does add some sort of video delivery ability to the consoles, they’d go up immensely in perceived and actual value. I can tell you in our home, the PlayStation 3 doubles as a DVD/Blu-ray player and is used more for that than gaming. The Xbox 360 also gets a fair amount of use as a movie-viewing machine when programming on our local cable company’s on-demand channel is light.
It would be nice to see Nintendo enter this fray. I might never have to buy a DVD player again! My fingers are crossed.
Via The Wiire
Labels: microsoft, nintendo wii, PlayStation 3, Wii, xbox 360, xbox live
