14 DAY TRIAL // Consumer site Engadget has a new Netflix poll up, asking those who have a PlayStation 3 if they are willing to pay a charge of 9.99 dollars in order to get something called an “Instant Streaming Disc,” which would allow them to see Netflix content on their consoles.
The poll’s appearance suggests that the company might be interested in expanding its service to other gaming consoles than the Xbox 360, on which it is already present. A similar poll, but targeted at those who are using a Nintendo Wii gaming console, was seen a while ago.
Such polling does not in any way guarantee that Netflix will expand its presence in the videogaming world. But when the partnership with Microsoft was announced, both companies profited. On the one hand, Microsoft got greater exposure for the Xbox 360 and a service that clogged up bandwidth, especially on Friday nights, signaling the fact that players were interested in it. On the other hand, Netflix got more people interested in its service and certainly sold more movies.
John Koller from Sony said some time ago that there was no plan related to bringing Netflix to the PlayStation 3. He stated that “We've concentrated most of our efforts on our download service, both rentals and downloads of movies and TV shows. Our efforts will continue to be there, because our customers want to own the content.”
Actually, Sony should be pretty interested in partnering up with Netflix, as it would allow it to release endless streams of press releases that would emphasize the fact that it has the same video streaming capabilities as the Xbox 360 from Microsoft.