Will the Wii jump into the TV set-top box game?

March 12, 2009 | Camille Ricketts | Comments | |

In an interview with Variety magazine, Lionsgate president Curt Marvis let slip that the Wii presents a major opportunity for Hollywood studios to distribute movies and television shows — and that this might be a reality before the year is out. While it isn’t written in stone, someone of Marvis’ stature probably isn’t just blowing smoke.

There are other indications a Hollywood-Wii deal might be in the works: Nintendo has already started developing a video-on-demand service to deliver original content via the Wii in Japan. The next logical step would be to partner with U.S. studios and agencies to add American films and shows to its roster. If it does, the Wii would instantly come toe-to-toe with Microsoft’s XBox Live, which already offers this feature through a partnership with Netflix, and Sony PlayStation Network, which has just joined forces with NBC Universal — not to mention the pack of set-top boxes that also serve internet video straight to living room televisions like Roku, Boxee, ZillionTV and Apple TV.

It seems a likely move for Nintendo, which has always been very TV-set-centric. It has a ripe chance to dominate the market in one fell swoop. There are 16.2 million Wiis in the U.S. right now as opposed to 12.8 million XBox 360s and 6.3 million PlayStation 3s. Not only would the Wii double the market for this kind of online video service (making it a Hollywood darling overnight), but it would beat the early adopters at their own game. And as a family-oriented entertainment system, the Wii is arguably a better fit for the business as well. Can’t you just see Disney rocking the Wii’s bubbly interface?

The only forseeable drawbacks are that the current Wii model wouldn’t be capable of high-definition playback and lacks a hard drive for long-term storage. That said, it’s more likely Nintendo would set up a quality streaming service through the device and wait for another hardware roll-out to add in requirements for enhanced viewing and video storage.

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About the Author, Camille Ricketts

Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

With GreenBeat 2009, VentureBeat's all-star conference on all things Smart Grid, coming up in November, Camille will be expanding coverage of this exciting space. Stay up to date by following @greenbeat2009 on Twitter or by becoming a fan of the event on Facebook here.

  • MrGutts
    Really don't think they can technically with the specs of the Wii. The hardware is just not beefy enough to handle the data and the size of the downloads. It also seems very late to the game for it, don't you think?

    Plus if they did manage to pull it off, Sony Pictures will just license block movies to be able to be streamed to the Wii, just like they did with the 360..
  • Haggie
    This should kill Wii purchases because the next version of the Wii will have HD support and a hard drive. Buying the current Wii is buying an vaguely interesting gaming solution that cannot be upgraded to a STB/game dual-use solution.

    If you need something today, buy a Roku for $100. Use it for the next year while the game platforms and content providers, like Hulu, get their acts together and then buy a fully developed solution in 2010.

    Until then, it is a bunch of Boxee-esque hacks that the average consumer will not want to deal with ...