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Xbox 360 to concentrate on movie downloads, not TV shows

Posted by Katherine Hannaford on Fri 27 Feb 2009

Want to watch Mama Mia on your Xbox 360? No problem. Lost? Get lost!

Despite fans - and T3 - crying out for TV show downloads, Stephen McGill, Head of gaming and entertainment at Xbox 360, told T3 that they're focusing on movie downloads at the moment, as "people are already consuming TV shows through other mediums".

Facing steep competition from the likes of Apple and their Apple TV device, which allows users to download shows and movies to watch on their TV, McGill doesn’t seem too concerned. “If you look at what we’ve been doing so far, things have changed over the years, we’re the leaders in video on demand in your living room, with over 17 million Xbox Live users”, he told T3 at yesterday’s Xbox announcement.

Unsure as to whether Xbox users want to download the latest Lost episode and watch it through their console, McGill claimed “people are already consuming TV shows through other mediums – if I want to watch something, I can watch it on my TV, my laptop or use services like the iPlayer. It’s not necessary to offer consumers another way of watching TV, Xbox users want movies”.

More open to the idea of TV shows was Neil Thompson, Head of UK Xbox, who yesterday said in an interview with TechRadar that “our focus is very much on movies at the moment. We are trying to make this service as good as possible before we even think about adding TV shows. We will speak to consumers and if we think that TV shows is what they want, then it will certainly be something to look into in the future”.

When asked about the possibility of the BBC iPlayer launching on the Xbox 360, as it has on the Nintendo Wii, McGill immediately said Microsoft wasn’t interested in investigating it further. “I tried using it on the Wii, but soon went back to watching it on my PC”. It appears streaming TV shows could prove difficult, he agreed it would “be a technical challenge to stream through broadband…we’ve also got to have the right content for the right market”.

Thompson also acknowledged Nintendo’s offering of the iPlayer when speaking to TechRadar, saying “we have to look at what will make the Xbox Live a unique experience for its users, so because of this we have no plans to integrate the iPlayer at the moment – unless we can find away to differentiate it from what other people offer.”

True, we can’t see Xbox users being interested in catching up on missed Eastenders episodes, however with Microsoft marketing the console as being the only PC you need for your living room, we’re left scratching our heads as to why they seem so against the idea – perhaps with Nintendo staking their claim on Auntie, Microsoft would rather consider other forms of entertainment – like getting social with the users.

“We’re the biggest social network on the TV”, McGill proudly told us, and didn’t seem too opposed to the idea of social networking sites like Facebook getting their own Xbox integration. After all, Microsoft has a vested interest in Facebook, after they paid $240m in 2007 for a 1.6% stake, valuing the company at $15bn.

In the meantime, Xbox users will be happy to know they’ve partnered with Universal Pictures to offer 30 movies available for download this week, including the Incredible Hulk, Mummy 3 and Shaun of the Dead, with others added next week, including Mamma Mia.

Link: Xbox 360

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