Now on Wii in Japan.
Stream Tom Cruise into your living room.
Video services are breaking through on consoles in the West: Netflix is up and running on Xbox 360 in the US, with SkyTV coming soon for the UK, and Sony has their own iTunes-like video store. Nintendo? Not so much over here, but in the company's homeland it's a totally different story.
In addition to the Nintendo's own quirky Wii no Ma service, Fuji Soft announced today that it will add movies to its current channel Minna no Theater Wii (Everyone's Theater Wii) service tomorrow (June 17), which until now has been populated mostly with episode rentals of Astro Boy, Transformers and other anime.
To kick things off, the service will offer 34 Western movies, including the 1996 flick Mission: Impossible and Breakfast at Tiffany's, which surely will set some viewers ablaze with joy. Korean and Japanese films will be added at some point too, and around 250 movies will eventually be added, Fuji Soft says. Presumably, if the service is enough of a hit then more movies will surely make it to the channel.
On top of the 500 point entry cost for the channel itself, viewing fees start at 300 points for a two-day period for "DVD-quality" streamed video, which is on par with other online video-renting services such as the Xbox Live Marketplace and iTunes.
Would you want a service like this? Would you pay for a service like this?
1. irken004
16 Jun 2009, 20:29 BST
i find this to be a little expensive though....
2. goldwyvern
16 Jun 2009, 20:32 BST
i dont know about buying it, but the idea is cool and movies lovers will get this like a fanatic with its $3 a movie pricing. its cetainly not the FIRST of its kind, but id like to watch transformers i guess. LOL MY FIRST FIRST
3. Turkey Brutus
16 Jun 2009, 20:34 BST
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a Western!?
@goldwyvern...better luck next time
4. my_point_is
16 Jun 2009, 20:35 BST
£2.50 for a 2 day rental. i`m sure a dvd rental is about the same price.
atleast it`s a step in the right dirrection for a possible dvd channel on the wii.
5. Panda
16 Jun 2009, 20:46 BST
@Brutus: What, you don't remember the final duel between Audrey Hepburn and Mickey Rooney? It makes the Man With No Name series look like Cinderella.
6. slambert215
16 Jun 2009, 20:46 BST
And North America gets... nothing. As usual.
7. warioswoods
16 Jun 2009, 20:49 BST
@Brutus
Haha, nice. You don't remember all those slow panning shots of the rugged frontier?
8. pie4prez
16 Jun 2009, 20:52 BST
Go to the Redbox!
9. Pawtrick
16 Jun 2009, 21:28 BST
If the movies are newly released rentals, then yes this channel would be a great addition and I would pay for it.
10. WiiGuy
16 Jun 2009, 21:34 BST
seems like a good price to me
As long as it doesn't skip while playing, I might download this when it comes over here!
11. jbrodack
16 Jun 2009, 21:34 BST
i'd rather netflix be brought to wii
12. Terranigma
16 Jun 2009, 21:47 BST
I would at least like the option to rent movies through the Wii
13. MarkyVigoroth
16 Jun 2009, 21:53 BST
I would like to have and pay...
14. Turkey Brutus
16 Jun 2009, 22:05 BST
Whoops, I made you take out the "Western movie" bit. Now I feel bad! I knew what you meant, and was just being a smart-butt.
Admittedly, I tried to think of a clearer way to phrase what you had said, and came up with nothing. So...sorry. Bad joke only.
15. WiX
16 Jun 2009, 22:11 BST
The funny thing about the Wii no Ma service is that "Wiin oma" means Wii's own in finnish, so when you say "Nintendo's own Wii no Ma service" it can be turned into Nintendo's own Wii's own service
But now to the actual topic, I would personally love the possibility to rent movies for Wii, if it works well and the movie doesn't stop when watching. The price isn't bad either. When friends come over and you would like to watch a film but don't want to go all the way to rent a film in real life, or the place is already closed, you could just choose from Wii's rental library and start watching. So yeah, please Nintendo, do something because Wii want it!
16. pixelman
16 Jun 2009, 22:20 BST
It'd be pretty cool to rent movies on my Wii, but NetFlix would be way cooler, especially since we already have an account with them.
17. Chatham
16 Jun 2009, 22:30 BST
I think for streaming video "DVD-quality" sounds impossible... Especially with Wii tech.
18. Mange
16 Jun 2009, 22:48 BST
If the channel plays dvd discs and play my local network media files then I will get it. I might even rent a movie.
19. theblackdragon
16 Jun 2009, 23:04 BST
@Chatham: considering my Wii sometimes has problems handling 'Nintendo-Channel-quality' videos, I'm with you.
20. beastman93
17 Jun 2009, 00:00 BST
@Chatham & theblackdragon: I would agree as well. I would say for Ninty to just let us have the option to watch our own DVDs through the DVD slot instead of this. Would make more sense to me.
21. Teppo Holmqvist
17 Jun 2009, 00:28 BST
@Chatham "I think for streaming video "DVD-quality" sounds impossible... "
Netflix already does that so long as you have enough bandwitdh available, and it won't be issue at Japan where typical connection is at least 2 MB/s. And Wii is more than enough for decoding MPEG2 / MPEG4 on the fly, although it wouldn't be able to decode HD-content.
22. Egg miester
17 Jun 2009, 01:55 BST
japan gets all the cool nintendo stuff and channels, and i find 3$ a good price to rent for 2 days, most stores/cable charge around 5$, i just hope it works well
23. PhoenixSage
17 Jun 2009, 01:55 BST
It'd be kinda cool, but I really don't need it. We've got so many RedBoxes 'round here (buck a night) that it would be a waste of money.
24. Atlantis1982
17 Jun 2009, 01:57 BST
Would be nice if we can get this service/channel, along with the other 4-5 other channels we are missing. ;|
25. Cheezy
17 Jun 2009, 03:25 BST
@ Chicken Brutus: By Western they meant movies released over here in the West, lol. But seriously, Breakfast At Tiffany's? Seriously, I don't remember it being that famous. But yeah, why not have something like 007, when you could have BFT's
26. Objection_Blaster
17 Jun 2009, 03:38 BST
I can't seem this doing well in the US. Where I live, both blockbuster and redbox offers movies cheaper than this and you either get them for a longer period or you have a larger selection. Also Wii fails at streaming.
27. Kid_A
17 Jun 2009, 03:39 BST
For me it's not worth it because the video-store is right up the street, and I have a pass that let's me rent stuff for free (I have to pay a monthly fee, but I rent a lot of movies, so it's worth it). Cool idea, though.
28. Mario maniac
17 Jun 2009, 04:42 BST
I actually wouldn't mind a service like this, if the pricing remained the same. I guess it would also depend on the variety of the movies...
29. Kirk
17 Jun 2009, 12:44 BST
I like the principle but I wouldn't in a million years pay for it on Wii.
For the price I think I'll just stick to Sky/Cable cheers.
30. brandonbwii
17 Jun 2009, 14:01 BST
@Chatham
The Wii as potentially limitless online/storage capabilies. It all just depends on Nintendo's own ambitions.
As for the channel, I'd buy it for that cool Mii interface alone.
31. Sean Aaron
17 Jun 2009, 15:07 BST
I think it's got potential, but the limiting factor would be the size of the film library. If a service focused on new releases mainly I think it would do well and I could see getting it, though I'm not sure who would provide service in the UK (Blockbuster, Sky?).
I haven't picked up this channel because of the point outlay for the player and the fact that network latency may mean dodgy performance given my distance to the servers (Minna no Nintendo Channel does okay, but sometimes it hangs; I'd hate to be out hundreds of points and have that happen!).
32. theguitarhero
17 Jun 2009, 17:41 BST
They are already talking the possibility of Netflix on Wii soon, so maybe we'll get that over in America instead.
33. ganondwarf16
20 Jun 2009, 04:02 BST
why don't they just release an update to alow actual dvds to play?
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