Netflix plays it safe taking its first steps outside of the United States, bringing streaming television shows and movies to our neighbors to the north this fall. Will Canadian console owners get the streaming service as well?
Rejoice, Canadian Kotaku readers! Come this fall, you'll no longer have to suffer pangs of hopeless desire every time we write a story about watching streaming movies and TV from Netflix. Not only is the service finally coming to Canada this fall, it's coming in the form of a streaming-only service, a first for Netflix.
See, in the United States, our Netflix accounts all include a minimum of one DVD out at a time, which leads many users to simply getting their one DVD and never returning it. I've had an unopened Netflix disc sitting on my desk for eight months now. I don't even know what the DVD is.
Will the service work on consoles? Right now all the press release says is that users will be able to stream video to their televisions "via a range of consumer electronics devices capable of streaming from Netflix." Implementation would be easy enough on the Xbox 360, but with the PlayStation 3 and Wii still requiring Netflix streaming discs, there might be logistical issues involved.
It sounds promising, but we've emailed the company for clarification, and will update should we receive a response.
The downside? At launch, the service won't be available in French, though the company plans to add the language option in the future. Hopefully that won't be a problem for anyone reading this.
No pricing information has been released. To keep track of the service's trek north, potential customers are urged to sign up for notifications at http://www.netflix.ca.