Microsoft have announced that as of Tuesday 11th of December 2007, UK Xbox gamers will be able to buy films through their Xbox consoles, a move which puts the Xbox in direct competition with everything from television to internet download services.
This move makes the Xbox the first games console to offer a video on demand service, although the PS3 is intending to launch a PlayTV service in 2008 which will provide a similar function to SkyPlus.
Each film will cost gamers from £2 to £4.50 with the download then remaining on the games console for two weeks. Launched in the States in November, as well as the UK the service will be rolled out in Canada, Ireland, France and Germany, with an initial offering of 40 titles available in HD format.
The movie download market is growing at an exceptional rate, and as domestic broadband speeds mature the industry will continue to grow. It is estimated that by 2012 the film download market could be worth 350 million euros in Europe alone.
Data compiled by vgchartz.com indicates that there are 1.6m Xbox consoles in the UK, which would give Microsoft a healthy market to build on as a download distribution platform. However, the Xbox still trails the Nintendo Wii in sales by two to one, and the PS3 has already shifted 4.8 million units in the UK, providing Sony too with a healthy download distribution platform after the launch of its own video on demand service.
This to me seems very much like a pre-emptive strike, trying to establish the Xbox as the dominant video on demand gaming platform before Sony’s offering early next year. I have the feeling with three times as many UK units sold, the PS3 will get a healthy share of the movie downloads market in due course.
