Nintendo Wii to offer streaming video and online food ordering service in 2009
Nintendo announced on Thursday that it will offer a streaming video service for its Wii gaming console. The new service will launch in Japan in 2009 and will feature original programming developed by Nintendo and partnering companies. Nintendo has hired the advertising firm Dentsu to promote this new service and recruit companies willing to develop the original programming content. Of the estimated 34.55 million Wii consoles sold worldwide, 40% are connected to the internet and present a potentially large pool of online viewers for aspiring video production companies. Though launching only in Japan, the new service is expected to expand to foreign markets.
If you crave some food while watching your favorite Wii-delivered flick, Nintendo has got you covered starting in Spring 2009. In another Japan-only service, Nintendo will be partnering with the Demae-can.com online food ordering service to allow you to order a meal right through your Wii. A wide variety of cuisine selections will be available including pizza, sushi, Chinese food, Japanese food and Western food. Mood music to match your selection will play in the background during the ordering process. Can’t decide what to eat? Let your Wii decide! The service will have a roulette mode that will randomly make a selection for you. We wonder how this movie and food ordering service will integrate with Wii Fit, rather than asking if you have been snacking or watching TV too much, Wii Fit will now know what and when you have been eating and being a couch potato. Will a tongue lashing ensue after your latest Wii movie watching and food indulging marathon?
Tags: food, Nintendo, Online, ordering, original, streaming, Video, Wii
The wii fit is gonna snitch on you! Hilarious! I don’t know about the food thing but the Wii could definitely use some movie love. I
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Online food ordering? Is it just me, or is Nintendo going to strike gold with this?
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I have a Wii and while I would love to watch videos on it, I just don’t think this is practical. Like it says, this is just streaming since Nintendo can’t let us download anything. Streaming video can be a pain, especially for people who don’t have the right connection. Who wants to sit there and wait for the video to buffer every 10mins.
I think this would be something better suited down the road when they add a hard drive to the Wii or something. I mean we can’t even officially watch DVDs on it. They need to worry about the things customers are asking for. No one bought the Wii thinking they would be able to watch videos online. But people didn’t think they would end up running out of space on their Wii.
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I could see this working with an SD card. Say you had an 8GB card in your Wii, that would be enough for a couple of movies and short clips. The data would be stored with some encryption and even have pieces of data stored on the Wii itself to help prevent piracy. Quality would be close to DVD quality with 480p.
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Food ordering service? C’mon people - get off of your gaming asses and either walk to the kitchen, your phone, or your car and go get food.
A step forward for Nintendo’s revenue - a step backward for the obesity percentage… ugh.
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@ just me
it’s a fast food nation man, get ya weight up!
just bullshitting… It’s sad though. Most online food ordering services never work because most restaurants(local mom & pop, regional, national) don’t have websites setup for that. But that will probably change when the digital revolution really gets into swing.
Idiocracy here we come!!!
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@Brice Hope
While what you said would be perfect, Nintendo would have to do some things first. First, the Wii can only handle up to 2GB memory cards, anything bigger and it doesnt recognize it. You can still hold something on a 2GB but nothing really that big.
The other things is that the Wii can only download a certain amount of things at once. I know this because for Guitar Hero World Tour, the Wii version can not download any Jimi Hendrix songs because whoever owns the rights, will only sell the songs grouped together. And the Wii cant handle downloading that much at once. From what I heard the Wii can only do 43mb max, but dont hold me on that. Someone said that in another comment. Im not sure what Nintendo can do about this, but if we cant download a group of songs, I doubt we can download any sort of video.
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The more devices that have streaming video capabilities, the more that high speecd access will become a broad standard.
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Thanks for the information. Bookmarked your site.
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Real simple. Make a patch that allows direct x to work. Same with mobile devices. Adobe hasn’t updated its mobile video software for years. Some one way smarter than me needs to just program a patch. I’d pay a good chunk of cash for it.
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