Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Xbox, Youtube, iPhone
We caught up with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at the movie rental company’s event where it awarded a $1 million prize after a contest aimed at improving the accuracy of movie recommendations. He spoke about his hopes of working with Apple on the iPhone, the possibility that YouTube will beef up its movie service, and the future of the DVD.
Reuters: What will Netflix subscribers gain from the improvements in the recommendation system?
Hastings: It’s doubling the quality of our movie recommendation and that helps our subscribers get more enjoyment from movies. Because more often they love the movie they watch. More often the movies recommended will will turn out to be movies that you love. If you watch a couple of movies and don’t like many, you start to watch (sports and other programming). If every movie is incredible, you start to watch more.
Reuters: Netflix video streams on Microsoft’s Xbox Live system. What about the PS3 and Wii? Hastings: Eventually we want to be on all the game consoles, all the Blu-ray players, all the Internet TVs. So we are working in parallel with all of those efforts. Currently our Xbox deal is exclusive and we haven’t characterized it more than that.
Reuters: Any plans to work in partnership with Apple and the iPhone? Hastings: it’s something that’s likely to come over time. But nothing in the short term. (With) movie watching, we are not focused on mobile yet, but (instead) on the TV, on Blu-ray and on the video game consoles. We will get to mobile eventually, including the iPhone.
Reuters: What of Youtube’s potential movie service? Hastings: I think there will be a lot of competition in this market: Hulu, Apple, Amazon, Youtube, Blockbuster. Internet video is a huge opportunity. And there will be a lot of people engaged, and that is going to be great for the consumer. All of us are going to innovate and compete with each other and provide more and more value to the consumer.
“I get by with a little help from my friends…”
Microsoft’s showcase of highly anticipated games for the Xbox 360 was mostly sequels of popular franchises, but all featured a new common element: cooperation. Reuters games reporter Kemp Powers explains.
Cooperative play, in which several players work together to finish a single-player mission instead of blasting each other, seems to be the mode du jour these days.
It has already been announced that the next installment in the “Call of Duty” franchise, “Call of Duty: World at War,” will include a cooperative mode (the last game did not). “Halo 3,” the last installment of Microsoft’s flagship franchise, for the first time included the ability for up to four players to play the entire game cooperatively over Xbox Live.
When online multiplayer play became popular on the Xbox Live service, it was driven by the strength of the multiplayer offerings in games like “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.” That usually meant some variation of deathmatch, in which individual players (or teams of players) competed against other individuals/teams over Xbox Live.
The new cooperative components of these Xbox 360 heavy hitters are sure to be highly anticipated additions:
“Resident Evil 5″ (March 13, 2009) is the newest installment in the popular Capcom horror/action franchise. “Resident Evil 4″ was a huge critical and commercial success on the Nintendo GameCube and Sony Playstation 2, and now this newest title makes an appearance on the Xbox 360. The cooperative mode means two players can shoot, punch and kick through the hordes of frightening enemies together. Online teammates will also have to help one another navigate environments by opening doors, offering boosts and other cooperative maneuvers.
“Gears of War” is one of the biggest hit franchises exclusive to the Xbox 360, and “Gears of War 2″ (November 7) seems to be picking up where its hit predecessor left off, with even more action and gore than the original. The first title in the series already allowed the entire game to be played cooperatively over Xbox Live, so the sequel ups the ante with “horde,” a new mode that allows up to five players to play cooperatively. Rather than play through the single campaign with five people, “horde” will task the teammates with surviving an onslaught of computer-controlled attackers.
Putting Netflix on a Wii is a great idea, it’s the best selling console in the nation and it’s very family centered and oriented. Obviously going from playing Wii Fit to watching a movie on the same family console is a great marketing strategy. Nintendo even does promotional stuff, like this online one I’ve found for a FREE Wii. Check out the link for more info on how to get it.
http://www.gamesncs.com/rd_p?p=192108&t= 9528&a=13190-wii&gift=3679