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.
Comments 40
How many discs can you order? Some friends and I share an account, and we all live in different states : P
It works really really well. Much more user friendly than the 360 version (last time I used the 360 version was a few months back)
So, this proves that we need movie watching on the Wii? Can we please have DVD playback first without having to use homebrew?
@Omega
Probably not, because they'd have to pay royalties to whoever invented the DVD format (forget which company).
@Omega: That's what PS3's are for
Cool Netflix is on Wii now. I've had mine on 360 for a while and barely use it anymore, thinking about getting rid of it.
I have tried this out. The menu in the Wii version is better than in the PS3 and XBox versions, but the picture doesn't look as good on an HDTV.
Yay!
I got my disc yesterday and I must say it runs and the menu looks super amazing. I just wish the selection was a bit bigger.
@Hyperstar96: You can do bold text and other formatting. Look at this very useful forum topic which Wiiloveit created: https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/help/helpful_tips_for_formatting_messages
Also you can edit your posts, so you don't need to double post.
@y2josh: Really? And I thought PS3's are for grilling sausages.
http://media.teamxbox.com/dailyposts/sony/grillstation3_01.jpg
Tried mine out last night, it's awesome.
It works really well. I'm glad they decided to do this!
NOOOOO I hate netflix until it comes to Canada, or something becides crazy dsi sales
Man...I still got to find my debit card. They told me they sent a disk to me. This'll be awsome for me as I have no cable now.
It says on Netflix that you have a have a Broad Band connection. Does anyone have any idea how well it would work with DSL?
How come all the sites are only talking about this now. I got my disc nearly a month ago and have been watching movies through my wii the whole time. Its great
Same here Mr. G. I love it although I do get a "System Files Corrupted" warning alot. A simple restart fixes it. However I talked to NetFlix about it and they are sending me a replacement disc.
I liked how the 360 version works better unfortunately. It had more of a DVD playback feeling when watching something while the Wii's playback seems more like a youtube feed that can be fast forwarded one minute at a time.
It is great! But, I am hearing impaired and rely on closed captioning. I hope that Netflix and Wii get their act together for those of us who really benefit from closed captioning.
Really wish they had a wii points option, I got no credit card.
@Rutabagababy i know what you mean dude closed caption should be a automatic option for those of us that needs it
Every time I have the option of subtitles, I turn it on. (It's really useful for noisy backgrounds, sound effects, etc.)
Haha, now I have Netflix on all my consoles.
I assume this is a non-european thing?
@47drift: That's illegal dude! Don't you look at user agreements! You can't share an account, that's theft!
@Omega: Impossible now that Nintendo replaced the disc drive to only read Wii disc format. Supposedly to cut down on pirating, but it doesn't help, they just use hard drives instead.
I just signed up for Netflix recently because of this. Got my Wii disc yesterday and have been watching things since then. As to the playback looking bad on an HDTV...I don't think I can agree with that. I'm watching on a 51" DLP, and it looks as good as any regular DVD I put in my player. I get no lag or load times beyond what it takes to first load up a movie. I love the menu system, and how it shows the DVD box covers to represent movies. There's a large selection of movies (could certainly be better, but that's what time is for). I like how you can add things to your "instant que" to to essentially make up a personalized online DVD collection. I've watched a few movies, several episodes of Firefly, and halfway through Lost Season 5 (which I never got to see), and it all looks, loads, and plays great. I like the ability to fast forward or rewind, and how it breaks the whole thing down into screens a few seconds apart, that can be moved through a minute at a time by pressing the + or - keys. I also love the resume feature, if I have to stop watching in the middle of something. Altogether, I am quite satisfied so far with my new Netflix account purchase (got my stepson a PS3 DVD too, so he can use the account for himself in his room). Maybe Netflix did the exact right thing, and will pick up millions of new subscribers from this business decision?
I got my disc over a week ago. Netflix on Wii is the snapple.
you have to have a disc in the Wii to watch Netflix that sucks and question is there any HD movies on it?
I've had my disc for a while now and I haven't taken it out of the Wii since I got it.
I agree with all the positive feedback. The menu runs quite smoothly and the screen quality is actually better than I expected. (I still have an SD tv.) I do wish there was some little music jingle while searching... but I'm picking at nits. Watched my first episode of Californication. That is a naughty (but funny) show.
@STOOPIDDITTIES
Yep, US exclusive.
Whilst we have the BBC iPlayer channel, you only get BBC programmes for a limited time. I'd like to see a similar system put in place over here, but it's unlikely since Netflix have no presence whatsoever here in the UK.
"Heck yeah!"
I'm not paying $9 a month for something I wouldn't use very often. For renting movies, RedBox is a lot cheaper (and a movie rental store for an occasional older release is also cheaper), and I can usually find TV episodes I missed online.
i dont think netflix is available outside of the US is it?
I've been watching 30 Rock on my Wii since I got my disc a couple of weeks ago and I've been pleasantly surprised with the video quality and the lack of buffering problems.
Well done, Netflix.
I got my disk a couple weeks ago. I like that you can add movies to your instant queue directly from the wii and not have to go to the computer.
i am still waiting for my disk to come in but todays mail doesn't look like its in
Guys, if this news is old to you, please move on to the next article. :3
They still can't handle HD streaming but the video quality still looks good. Here is a comparison between Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360: http://www.thehdstandard.com/streaming-technology/netflix-streaming-on-nintendo-wii-now-available/
Catalin
get this the only bad thing about it is there is no search bar.
Of coarse you all already know I have it.....
I got a little advice, not the whole entire selection of movies available shows up, so if you can got to netflix.com and put the one you can't find on Netflix for Wii in your play it now queue, it appears in your queue on Netflix for Wii.
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