<\/p>\n

Years back — before the Wii even came out — Nintendo discussed plans to release an enhanced Wii in Japan with support for DVD playback. As far as I know that never happened, and right about now I’m guessing it never will. Well, at least not in the US.<\/p>\n

However, Nintendo is adopting the next best thing. Beginning this spring, the Wii will gain the ability to stream TV shows and movies via Netflix!<\/p>\n

To enable Netflix streaming, you’ll first need to register for an instant-streaming Wii disc at www.netflix.com\/Wii<\/a> — these discs are free of charge and will be shipped out when the service goes live. Then, as long as you have a broadband connection and are already a Netflix subscriber, you can begin streaming video content straight to your TV at no additional cost (Netflix is $8.99 a month). Once you have the instant-streaming disc and a subscription, you’ll be able to pop the disc into your Wii and begin browsing the Netflix online storefront, setting up streaming Queues, rating movies and more with your trusty Wii Remote.<\/p>\n

“Our research shows that 86 percent of all U.S. Wii consoles are located in the living room,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “The Wii console is the social hub around which friends and family members gather to play games and have fun. Soon both new and longtime Wii owners will enjoy the benefits of Netflix \u2013 and a variety of informational and entertainment options \u2013 by being Netflix members and connecting their consoles to the Internet.”<\/p>\n

“Our goal is to offer Netflix members as many ways as possible to watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix right to their TVs and to give non-members more and compelling reasons to consider the service,” said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. “Joining forces with Nintendo, which has been so immensely popular with consumers since its introduction, is a very meaningful step in that direction.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve never seen the Wii as being much of a living room “media hub” like the PS3 and Xbox 360 are, so it’ll be very interesting to see whether the service takes off or not. What are your thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years back — before the Wii even came out — Nintendo discussed plans to release an enhanced Wii in Japan with support for DVD playback. As far as I know that never happened, and right about now I’m guessing it never will. Well, at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,41,32],"tags":[1899,6092,6086],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}