This last article is exactly what I’m talking about. Sony needs to stop pretending like they know whats best for everyone and start listening to what the people are saying. If we want Netflix streaming… give us Netflix streaming. It is of no cost to you, and I already have a Netflix account. How else do you think I would be watching the Blu-Ray movies you say I should be watching? Buying them at $35 bucks a pop?

RIIIIIIIIIGGGHHTTT….

Why is there no video podcast download function in the PS3? If I could get home and just sit on my couch and watch TekZilla it’d be awesome. This is something the PS3 -can do- right now, yet they are not letting it do it. They are concentrating on selling us movies through the PSN video store that are DRMed to hell and therefore useless unless you plan on only watching them on your PS3 or PSP. Yes, they wont play on your iPhone, so sorry.

If Sony figures out that the future is in open DRM standards and interoperability (or no DRM at all) and on accessibility to all the forms of entertainment that there are available and not just to your walled garden. IF they figure this out before Microsoft does, the PS3 has a fighting chance.

Sony needs to give us everything. Talk to the PlayOn guys and get half those streams on the PS3. Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon Video On Demand. Give us choice by having too many choices, not by ‘selecting between the movies on the video store’. As long as they do not give us all the options that there are out there for video delivery, not because of software/hardware limitations but because it is a business desicion to try and force you to buy videos through their store, they need to The Fuck Shut Up.

They are defending themselves by claiming that the consumer (which already spent more than enough money in their over-priced box) would not want to use the subscriptions he/she has already and would prefer to spend more money in the solutions that Sony deems worthy. This is foolish and I’d rather if they just said nothing, and started talking about all the great exclusive games they are getting to the platform instead of these media choices.

Exclusive games like Tekken, Final Fantasy XIII, Killzone 2.

Blockbuster, if you remember, would always get exclusive deals. They had some real pull because most of a movie’s money is actually made in the rental arena and in licensing. Now that Netflix is on top they can’t talk to other companies to maybe get some flexibility on the Watch Now capabilities?

Microsoft is finally adding DRM to Silverlight sometime this summer, how long will it take for Netflix to catch up? More importantly, how much extra will they charge?

Watch Now has been free for two reasons. One, theyre trying out this whole streaming thing. Two, a large portion of their subscribed base can’t access it because they are on Macs or because they refuse to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox while on Windows.

Once they open up Watch Now to that bigger user base I am sure they will start charging a premium for it. Just like they announced the second that Blu-Ray won the format war.

Apple is in the Blu-Ray side, well, they were before the format was over and you could pick a side. At some point soon Apple computers will start coming with built-in Blu-Ray drives. At which point, owning a Mac and having Netflix will turn out to be counterproductive. Unless you do not care about watch now, and do not care about Blu-Rays… In which case I’m sure Netflix will not charge you more.

The problem is, right now they are claiming that it is a feature. Your monthly payments are for movies by mail and movies instantly, as stated by this screenshot of their website. They can talk all they want about how its just something extra and it doesn’t factor into the price. The reality is that Netflix is using Watch Now as a feature to add new customers, while their inability, ( adobe has drm on flash) unwillingness, (they’ve stated theyre working on it) plans are to cut down on their bandwidth costs until they can charge everybody more.

For the record, I am a Netflix customer. I am very happy with the mail-in service but am annoyed that I cannot use my Mac to access these extra features I do feel I am subsidizing for Windows users. I also own a PS3 and -will not- be upgrading to Blu-Ray discs. I won’t subsidize Watch Now for others, while at the same time paying extra for the one ‘nifty’ feature I can get.