Nintendo Wii movie store could be heading to UK

Posted by David Walker on Mon 27 Jul 2009

Bored of the games? Watch a blockbuster, writes David Walker

Looking for one more reason to buy a Nintendo Wii? How about if it could offer a host of Hollywood blockbusters, available to view 24/7? That could be the case very soon, with rumours that the Nintendo Wii movie store is heading worldwide.

It's not the first time movies have been made available on consoles. Indeed, Japan already has the Wii movie service, with the PS3 (via PlayStation Store) offering around 2000 movies and almost 10,000 TV shows in the US, while the Xbox has both its own movie download service and Netflix compatibility Stateside, along with a healthy range of TV shows. But crucially, only the Xbox can offer any kind of movie service to UK punters right now, which makes this particular territory still ripe for the picking for Nintendo.

The man behind the latest rumour is Lionsgate's President of Digital Media Curt Marvis, who expects the Wii's movie store to be launching worldwide sometime very soon. Speaking to Casualgaming, Marvis said he 'imagines the Wii's movie store will launch worldwide soon... the essential point is that the game machine is already connected into the TV, and we see it as a major conduit inside the home to bring movies via the internet into the television.' Or in other words, Nintendo has the infrastructure already there, it just needs to flick the switch.

Just don't expect to see the latest instalment of Saw or Hostel coming through your Wii. According to Marvis, the Wii audience is slightly different from that of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which means content will vary accordingly: 'Our horror and action movies are ideal for the Xbox and PlayStation's hardcore audience, while the broader audience of the Wii are likely to enjoy our more mass-market properties.'

Nintendo hasn't commented as yet, but if a commercial movie partner is making those noises in public, we can assume that the worldwide Wii movie store is already deep into the planning stages. Watch this space.

Link: Nintendo Wii (via TechRadar)