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Added by Brad Shoemaker on Nov. 19, 2008

Coming (back) soon to an Xbox near you?
Coming (back) soon to an Xbox near you?
Yesterday saw the disappointing news that a large number of titles had been blocked from the new Xbox 360 version of the Netflix streaming service--all titles which Sony Pictures owns the rights to, coincidentally or not. Sounds a little like an I'm-taking-my-movies-and-going-home scenario, doesn't it?

MTV Multiplayer went straight to Netflix corp-comm dude Steve Swasey to get the real story. And what is that story?

"In the case of Xbox 360, a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox game console...Those titles are still available to be watched on subscribers’ computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they’ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly."

When asked if the license just coincidentally expired as Microsoft was adding Netflix support or Sony Pictures Entertainment specifically requested Xbox 360 streaming to be disabled, Swasey wouldn’t say.

"As watching instantly becomes a more prominent part of the Netflix service, our goal is to have all of our streaming content licensed for all of our partner devices," he said. "We’re doing well in this area, but it will take some time before we fully achieve that goal. Today, titles regularly come in and out of license and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time."

Perhaps the stream of cash into Sony Pictures' coffers needs to make with less ebb and more flow before all this gets resolved. I'm just glad I happened to stream Super Size Me last weekend, before all this went down. Eat your veggies, kids!

Filed under : New Xbox Experience

24 Comments

MasterSplinter
on Nov. 19, 2008
Nope.. I'm not too optimistic.

Media_Master
on Nov. 19, 2008
Yeah, well....or if theres a problem you can actually buy it from an actual store

MackGyver
on Nov. 19, 2008
It will be interesting to see if Sony concedes to this. If so, I suspect Microsoft will be paying a fee for those movies Sony has the rights to. But they need to be careful and not hurt their other movie business agreements. Who knows...

MackGyver
on Nov. 19, 2008
Well put Media Master.

lol12345
on Nov. 19, 2008
guess Microsoft should start making some movies

Derachi
on Nov. 19, 2008
You guys should feel lucky.
No Netflix for Canada D':

Kyle
on Nov. 19, 2008
That's kind of a shame. Sony is never any good with those "hearts and minds" issues. This doesn't make anyone like Microsoft less, it just makes them hate Sony more. Thanks, guys.

It's not as if disallowing the streaming of their movies is going to convince people to switch over to the PS3 Netflix service . . . you know . . . cause there isn't one.

Milkman is online
on Nov. 19, 2008
In all fairness, this really makes sense for Sony to pull the movies in a business stand point. It's basically giving your competitor some free extra points.

Valestis is online
on Nov. 19, 2008
We don't get any movies in Finland. :/ Sucksssss.

MasturbatingBear
on Nov. 19, 2008
If I can watch SuperSizeMe on my xbox then I am set.

Dryker
on Nov. 19, 2008
I've been dickin' with the NXE for hours now and that Netflix streaming service is frickin' awesome. I hate Nintendo Miis, but I spent an hour building outfits for my avatar, and now I feel dirty. I downloaded the Fable 2 premium theme after I realised they're more than just backgrounds, they also have 3D "sets" for your animated friends list. It's sick! Well, anyways, gonna wash off the avatar filth with a stream of Netflix: Alien.
NXE kicks ass!

OmegaPirate
on Nov. 20, 2008
i dont get what the actual complaint of xbox users is here >.> -its like saying oh come on why do none of microsfot exclusives get made available for the ps3!!bastards just being greedy -etc.
And whats with all these media streaming all of a sudden -i swear at one point people said it was a pointless trick and it was useless the ps3 doing it as it wasnt even a games console - now the xbox is doing it its the best thing ever and people want more than a console??? 

I can barely type for the sound of people eating their hats 

IncredibleBulk92
on Nov. 20, 2008
I really hope Netflix and more specifically the 360 version of Netflix comes to the UK sometime soon
I'm more than willing to pay a couple of quid a month to stream movies whenever I want.  Does anybody know if I could create a US account and get Netflix through that or would it be restricted like the Video marketplace is?

Slique
on Nov. 20, 2008
@ OmegaPirate

The problem is that Sony announced the PS3 as a 'mutlimedia' package from the getgo, and slapped on a ridiculous asking price to boot. On release, they hadn't mastered any of the basic features in each section (online play for gaming, DivX support for  videos, etc), and as such it didn't feel so much like a multimedia system as much as Sony trying to one-up Microsoft out of the box. Microsoft, however, introduced the Xbox 360 as a gaming platform, having given its users a unique online and general gaming experience, and has slowly been upgrading it as time goes by to increasing user demand. They've managed to keep their users enticed to the system by taking their time and releasing the new features when ready, and not just shoving them out all at once. Don't get me wrong, I do believe that it's pretty damn contradictory for Microsoft to go down the multipurpose route, but they've handled it well, and at the end of the day, the main point of the system is still gaming.

Personally, I think it's quite selfish of Sony to remove their films from the service, and I can't really see how it makes business sense either. Surely Sony would be acquiring royalties from Netflix/Microsoft everytime a movie is watched? Hopefully they can sort it out before long, as the only people really being affected by all this are the consumers.

Aaox
on Nov. 20, 2008
@Silque
Very well spoken, my good man. Onward to multimedia prowess!

marcusfriendly
on Nov. 20, 2008
SONY SUCKS!!!!!!

Sandvich
on Nov. 20, 2008
@OmegaPirate: You do realize the 360 has been streaming movies since launch, right? It's not something that has just happened. The recent Netflix partnership is just an expansion of that service. And the complaint is pretty easy to understand; I think ideally we would want access to every movie ever made streaming to our 360 from the comfort of our couches. Less Movies = Bad. More Movies = Good. Pretty simple.

vinull
on Nov. 20, 2008
This is beyond PS3 vs 360; Sony is heavy into BluRay and may find it won the format war only to loose to HD streaming - loosing both money on players and licensing the format.  Netflix taking streaming mainstream (ha, i made a funny) is a bigger hit to Sony than anything the Xbox will do.

cspiffo
on Nov. 20, 2008
Oh well.  Guess I won't be watching Sony Netflix movies.  No big loss seeing as their are a hella ton of movies that arent' from Sony on Netflix.  Who's the real loser in this again?

Equilibrium
on Nov. 20, 2008
Despite lacking those flicks, the instant streaming lineup is fairly robust for something launched on day one.  Granted, 100K > 10K, but considering my expectations were in the dumps for the streaming selection, I'm incredibly pleased with Netflix and MS. It's a damn fine showing. Furthermore, NXE is fantastic.


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