Nintendo doing Wii video-on-demand

By Robert Purchese Published 8 April, 2009

Will work with DS, be "different".

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata has revealed plans for a video-on-demand service for Wii and, via file transfer, the DS.

He accepted that this will follow in the footsteps of Sony and Microsoft, but said Nintendo will, naturally, do "something different".

"If the Wii and the DS are connected, it should be possible to download video through the Wii and take it with you on the DS," Iwata told the Wall Street Journal.

"When the service begins, you'll see how we're going to do it differently in a Nintendo-like way. There are a lot of on-demand video services, so there’s no reason to do the same thing, so we’re going to do something different."

He didn't go into any details about planned content, pricing, or even a time-scale for rolling out the service. He did suggest the company would - as usual - trial the system first in Japan before considering the West.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • peterfll #1 3 years ago

    I get appalling performance on the current VOD on the Nintendo channel.

    I have an American Wii so the fact my requests are served from the US *might* be a factor.

  • Cadence #2 3 years ago

    Mmmm, lots of Pokemon.

  • Whatsfor #3 3 years ago

    "Different" meaning "Standard Definition"?

    Beverly Hills Chihuahua - Coming To A Wii Near You!

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #4 3 years ago

    Content and quality are the two main issues so, until we have an clear idea of both of those things, I'm not really interested.

    I hope it's better than the Xbox video service which is utter shite but have a feeling it won't be.

  • darc #5 3 years ago

    "in a Nintendo-like way"

    All actors replaced by Miis. Oh, the humanity.

    "I hope it's better than the Xbox video service which is utter shite but have a feeling it won't be."

    I think it's safe to say it will be far worse, just by merits of the h/w limitations.

  • dadrester #6 3 years ago

    "you'll see how we're going to do it differently in a Nintendo-like way.

    They're only going to air repeats of stuff that was just repeated on terrestrial TV, and charge 5x the price of a TV licence for it?!

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #7 3 years ago

    @ STKD

    That's something that could be quite attractive.

    I'm hoping for Studio Ghibli films to go on the DS, but fear we'll get crappily encoded Pokemon cartoons! ;)

  • LazyDan #8 3 years ago

    iPlayer on DS via WiFi will do. Hop to it, pip pip.

  • Dan234 #9 3 years ago

    iPlayer on DS via WiFi will do. Hop to it, pip pip.

    If the BBC have anything to do with it they spend months engineering in the most important feature, making the DS self destruct once the white cliffs of Dover are passed by.

  • BartonFink #10 3 years ago

    LOL - certainly will be doing something different. low res video.

  • paul_haine #11 3 years ago

    You'll have to exchange friend codes with every video you want to download.

  • Xerx3s #12 3 years ago

    As someone who has used the DS for video viewing: Wtf is the point, those screens are rubbish for it.

  • Xerx3s #13 3 years ago

    "I hope it's better than the Xbox video service which is utter shite but have a feeling it won't be. "

    Howso?

  • Dan234 #14 3 years ago

    Maybe you'll have to turn the DS 90 degrees to get widescreen (with a line down the middle). That would be "different in a Nintendo-like way."

  • Ryze #15 3 years ago

    Yep, cartoons on demand.

  • Sean.Aaron #16 3 years ago

    Anything approaching DVD quality is good if it keeps the missus happy without having to endure Blockbuster messages about late fees...

  • cyber_nicco #17 3 years ago

    "I hope it's better than the Xbox video service which is utter shite but have a feeling it won't be."

    The Xbox video service is really quite good. Lots of selections (too much horror crap, but plenty of good stuff), will start playing in under a minute, and is priced competively. My only complaint is the 24 hour rental (crazy that it is not 48 hours), but that compares to other download services such as Amazon and my cable provider.

    Of course, I'm in the US.