The movies on games consoles story rolls on, with ScreenDaily reporting today a slew of films announced for the catchily named PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service, which launches in France, Germany, Spain and the UK for Christmas, and the rest of Europe…later. The service lets users download films to their PS3 or PSP, and rent a selection of films – studios already signed up include 20th Century Fox, Disney, Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warners.
Things moving similarly quickly with the Xbox 360, first a Sky Player. Then a denial of any chance of Xbox 720, before the rejection of integration of Blu-Ray into future incarnations in favour of on-demand 1080 movies. Next, comes a deal with an on demand streaming movie service from film renters Netflix. AP now report the firm was adding another well-adopted platform to its service before Xmas – which I’m presuming is the PS3. Spotify for movies? Cloud cinema? Your idiot box in the corner is no longer for idiots.
Kingsley Marshall is an academic and journalist who lectures in film and contributes music and film criticism, features and reviews to Little White Lies, Shook and Big Screen magazines in the UK. He was appointed Technical Editor at Clash magazine in 2010, where he writes a technology and games column.