The PlayStation 3 just wants to be your everything… and with the recent addition of Netflix streaming movies (Instant Watch), the Sony device is poised to become much more attractive to consumers.
But, what’s that you say…? Isn’t Sony shooting itself in the foot by offering Netflix users the opportunity to bypass the PlayStation Store’s selection of movies and television shows to access to their Netflix accounts instead? After all, Netflix users, for the second-lowest possible subscription fee (currently $8.99 DVD/$10.99 Blu-ray), have access to Netflix’s unlimited library of Instant Watch streaming media at no additional charge.
Soon, the DVD rental behemoth will be offering a much wider library of Instant Watch titles, including many in high-definition. With this in mind, it remains unclear how Sony will continue to corral PlayStation users into visiting their own proprietary shopping service for movie and TV content. Why buy HD/SD content when you can rent it, and why rent from Sony (priced much higher than that of the Netflix/Redbox pricing models) when you can watch VOD-styled content directly via your existing Netflix account. Sony’s probably quite thankful that Netflix doesn’t offer games.
Sony is obviously making a play for the 2009 holiday season and the future of its entertainment device by allowing Netflix to stream to the Playstation3. After all, LG and Samsung had already set up such a deal and moved beyond Netflix with the addition of Amazon-On-Demand, Pandora and other streaming or content download services for their current Blu-ray player models. Users of these players get VOD-styled cinema and television content via their regular Amazon or Netflix subscription or by purchasing content à la carte without setting up yet another additional account/virtual wallet.
Sony’s attempt to keep everything proprietary doesn’t seem to be working out (Apple still does this best), and it was time for them to keep up with consumer demand for streaming media or end up losing potential Blu-ray player customers who might also be potential gamers.
I’ve purchased plenty of games, but I’ve never purchased or rented a movie off of the PSN Store. It may hurt Sony’s store, but it’s yet another addition to help the PSN compete with the Xbox Live service. I’m really enjoying the quality of the streaming from the Netflix/PS3 service.
I will always prefer the HD quality from the PlayStation Store. Don’t care about Netflix.
I’d say the same goes for the X-Box Live service if VOD really takes off… To the consumer it’s generally all about price (quality to *most* consumers is secondary, especially in recessionary times), and though you can say a lot of negative things about Netflix (“throttling” their customers for instance), their subscription pricing model seems to work better for the consumer than a more costly a la carte service… There’s a lot of great things (and complaints, too) to be said for both types of service. Where Netflix comes out ahead is in offering decent streaming quality of their Instant Watch service… it’s like being the hungry guy at an all-you-can-eat-buffet.
In any case, my rear end bows to your Buddha-like knowledge and opinion on the subject.
Christian
Christian that’s talking out of your rear end if I have ever seen that before.
1) The XBL video store also exists, yet I don’t recant seeing articles that MS was shooting themselves in the foot when they made the Netflix deal
2) The PSN Store offers much better quality and -recent- films not available on Netflix.
3) All the offers are complimentary. I use Blu Rays (sometimes bought and otherwise rented from Netflix), I watch old stuff from Netflix streaming now once in a while (catching up on unseen Sliders), and I recently downloaded a recent movie in HD from the PS store for a $5 2 week rental.
Nope … seems to work for me :)