The gaming wars are heating up after the Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard as all the big boys realize they need a video game play.

Netflix is making it clear that they won’t be left behind:

That’s a tall task for Netflix, which is building its gaming unit from scratch. Netflix chief operating officer Greg Peters said Thursday the company plans to license “large game” intellectual property that “people will recognize” later this year. Hastings added Netflix will use its “walk, crawl, run” strategy around gaming, where it purposefully grows the business gradually to learn about user habits and use resources efficiently.

Co-chief executive officer Reed Hastings, saying that Netflix intends to “amaze” its members . . . let’s see if they meet that high standard.

Streaming powerhouse Netflix will be entering the video game business. Expect to see this in 2022 in the US as the company is already rolling this out in European markets.

Netflix has hired former Electronic Arts and Facebook executive, Mike Verdu, as vice president of game development, to lead this important strategic initiative. The company sees gaming as one of its biggest competitors, and this also offers an opportunity to differentiate itself from the likes of HBO Max.

At this time the company does not intend to charge an additional fee to access games.

Everyone seems to be up in arms about Reggie Fils-Aime’s comments regarding the lack of HD streaming for the Nintendo Wii. His comments seem pretty rational to me, at least in the short term.

Here’s what he said: “the vast majority of content for streaming on Netflix is not HD content, so there really is no loss for the Wii consumer with the fact they can’t get any HD content through our system.” True. There is a dearth of HD content that can be streamed from Netflix, so pushing through a Wii HD just for that capability is ridiculous.

The real problem is that there will be more HD content on Netflix, and it will be ever-increasing, so the further along we get, the more demand there will be. That could quickly translate to less demand for the Wii, especially when the other consoles release motion-control systems. Then what’s to keep people with the Wii? The Vitality Sensor? I think not.

Source: CNBC

So the PS3 is finally going to get Netflix streaming, but it’s like the backwoods, broke down version, and that’s not going to change any time soon. For PS3 owners to stream videos they’ll need a special disc in the drive, a handicap that won’t be lifted until late next year.

I have no idea why that will take a year of development. Netflix’s Steve Swasey explained the problem to G4, saying, “Late next year we expect to have an embedded solution available for PS3s via a system software update slated for release through the PlayStation Network. Until then, enjoy watching instantly via your PS3 using the instant streaming disc!” Oh boy!

I’ll concede that it’s still a nice feature to have on Sony’s console, but the disc thing is a bummer.

Sony’s 10-year plan for the PS3 finally seems to be coming together…halfway into its life cycle. As a Netflix press release announced today, the PS3 will be adding the ability to stream content from the rental service. The new feature will be offered free of charge to PS3 owners;all that’s required is a subscription to the Netflix service, which can cost as little as $9 a month. By contrast, the same service for the Xbox 360 requires that users have a gold subscription to Xbox Live, which runs $50/year.

There is a catch, though. While services like that on the Xbox 360 give users access to BD Live content, the PS3 version requires a special disc for the drive in order to access BD Live content. It’s a small trade-off, particularly if you consider the $50 upcharge for the 360.

At any rate, the PS3 is finally becoming the console we all wanted it to be. Sure, it’s all coming a bit late, but better to have these things than not.