BBC iPlayer, Lovefilm, 4OD aim for Xbox Microsoft has signed up video-on-demand companies Blinkbox and Lovefilm, and Channel 4's catch-up viewing service 4OD, to bring their offerings to the Xbox 360 this year. BBC iPlayer will be coming too. So will Channel 5's catch-up service. The channels will be made available through Xbox Live. They'll be joined by a number …
One has been able to get iPlayer even on the old xBox for years now. Also quite a few other streaming channels. Why do people put up with waiting for MS to bring public services into their walled garden?
It's like buying a Sony TV and thinking that it's great to only be able to get content off the Bravia services. Feck that.
I've been sorely tempted to go for a 360 for a while now, this won't harm my intentions (no more than my girlfriend anyway). I've got an HD Recordable Freeview with 'Portal' functionality and I pay my TV licence (no, really). AC makes an interesting point/assumption about potential access to Gold membership only but surely there wouldn't be much market for it in that case. Most people have a TV, most people have a digital TV subscription or other access to such content, it wouldn't be a great temptation to upgrade to Gold in order to access stuff you can likely access in any number of other ways already. I suppose this might only leave those ardent MS/360 fans who have lived so far in one of the small pockets of non-digital areas and have never had digital TV access.
It's had all this for ages, and in HD, doesn't require any recurring subscriptions, has better games, includes a Blu-Ray player and very decent media streaming, and can be picked up new for £179 in supermarkets. The same price as the Xbox, but without the additional costs, last-gen storage, unrelability, and Microsoft subscription lock-ins. Also the Xbox is now looking very tired and end-of-life.
I'm guessing this is why Microsoft waited until now, rather than delivering this stuff earlier, as it's a sales shot in the arm, rather than the Sony strategy of delivering these things when they are ready.
As someone who owns both consoles (and a Wii FWIW), and has done so since both consoles originally came out, I can say that all you have stated is an "opinion".
Now, I personally prefer the games on the 360 than those on PS/3, so much so that in *my* particular case I use my 360 for games, and my PS/3 as a media player. That's not to say that 360 games are necessarily "better" than those on the PS/3, just that I prefer them, and also that I prefer the feel of the 360 controller.
In short - if the acronym GOW means Gears of War rather than God of War to you, you're likely to prefer the 360 over the PS/3.
As to the Xbox looking "very tired and end-of-life", that's really sounding like fanboi nonsense! :)
One last comment in defence of the Xbox 360 - Sky Go! :)
The sticking point was that MS was insisting on the non-Free xBox Live Gold subscription which was unacceptable to the BBC.
The BBC are not keen on pre-announcement of iPlayer availability so it is likely to be available within then next couple of weeks (if it isn't already live). There are a lot of the services in the list and I can't see a clear roll out schedule but it could take some time.
It isn't clear to me from the press release which services (if any) will require the paid XBox subscription.
Actually I think that while a good step for MS they have really missed the peak of the opportunity here with Internet Video increasingly built into TVs and available in cheap streaming boxes and having been on the PS3 for some time many people who want these features will already have them so I wouldn't expect it to help sales massively although there are some real revenue opportunities for them with paid services.
"The sticking point was that MS was insisting on the non-Free xBox Live Gold subscription which was to the unacceptable BBC."
Saying it was "unacceptable BBC" implies the BBC had a choice in the matter. They were unable to agree because their charter forbids it. Universal access is a core principle of their charter.
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