Yesterday at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles, software titan Microsoft flexed its considerable Xbox 360 muscle beyond the realms of videogames by announcing an exclusive content deal with online movie rental service Netflix that will bring its growing library of 10,000 movies and television shows to Xbox Live subscribers.
Microsoft pens content streaming deal with Netflix for the Xbox 360 videogames console. Image: Netflix.
Expanding its Xbox 360 home theatre experience into the living rooms of its Xbox Live user base, which currently exceeds 12 million members, the Netflix content deal will allow Xbox 360 owners to instantly stream popular movies and TV shows directly to their television sets via their entertainment hub videogame console.
Xbox 360 subscribers who are already signed up to receive Netflix content through their set-top boxes will be given access to the incoming content at no extra charge.
Netflix movie and television content is due to arrive on the Xbox 360 this coming Autumn alongside a console firmware update that will deliver a revamped dashboard user interface, new content channels, party-focused online opportunities and the introduction of customisable personalised avatars.
According to Redmond-based Microsoft, the upcoming arrival of Netflix’s streamed content and the Xbox 360’s existing Live Marketplace Video Store, makes its popular home videogames and entertainment console home to “more movies and TV shows on demand than any other device connected to the TV.”
“Watching movies at home will never be the same. Netflix on Xbox 360 is an entertainment first, and we are bringing friends together with the best in entertainment content like no other device in the living room,” said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Interactive Entertainment Live, Software and Services Business at Microsoft. “We are creating a completely new social entertainment experience, and Xbox 360 will be the only videogame system where you can access your library of instantly streamable movies from Netflix and turn any room into a virtual movie theater.”
Some of the top-tier content set to be made available through the Netflix streaming service include masses of Academy Award-winning feature films and nominees, along with current classic TV shows and 24 of the films rated by the American Film Institute as the greatest ever made.
To further bolster the appeal of the Xbox 360 and its Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft also took the opportunity to announce the capture of movie and television content from NBC, Universal Studios, MGM and Constantin. NBC will provide TV downloads for the US market, including the likes of hit shows Battlestar Galactica and The Office (US), while Universal will deliver hit movies such as The Chronicles of Riddick, The Bourne Supremacy and more.
MGM and Constantin will provide content for those Xbox Live users in Europe, which will likely annoy those UK-based subscribers regionally locked out from accessing NBC and Universal’s English-language content in the United States.
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