We got the popcorn, now we need someone talking obnoxiously on their phone

Back in the day Nintendo announced its intention of focusing the Wii as a straightforward gaming machine in the face of the competition throwing specs around, but we're in a very different situation today. Well, not that the hardware has changed much, but what we can do on it has certainly progressed.

As of Monday just gone, members of Netflix can start enjoying thousands of films and television episodes by streaming them onto the Wii. To stream content from Netflix carries no additional costs to members of packages that start from $8.99 USD a month. Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO at Netflix adds:

Launching Netflix on the Wii home console marks a significant advance in the evolution of our service...Wii has created immense consumer excitement and has meaningfully altered the consumer electronics landscape. Bringing Netflix to Wii catapults us toward our goal of being ubiquitous on the connected devices most popular with consumers.

So if you're already a Netflix member, own a Wii and haven't requested your free streaming disc yet, head over to the Netflix Web site and do it now. Discs are usually sent out one business day after they are requested using first class postage.

We'll have a hands-on with the Netflix service for the Wii soon, so stay tuned for that if you're still on the fence.