Sony Blocks Netflix Movies from Xbox 360

Kris Erickson • Nov 19, 2008 • Comments (0)

With the launch of the New Xbox Experience (NXE), 360 owners will be able to stream full-length movies through their console using a Netflix subscription. That is, unless the film they want to view happens to be the property of Sony Pictures. The Japanese media company has quietly blocked all of its video content from being streamed over the Xbox 360. Strangely, content can still be streamed using other devices such as an internet connected PC, so this move suggests that it is targeted directly at the Xbox 360 platform. Sony also owns Columbia Pictures, a major American film company. Among the hundreds of films that will be blocked from the service are the Spiderman movies, the James Bond franchise, Superbad, and Karate Kid.

A spokesperson for Netflix, Steve Swasey, said that the company would be working hard to try to convince its partners to allow their content to be streamed on every device:

"As watching instantly becomes a more prominent part of the Netflix service, our goal is to have all of our streaming content licensed for all of our partner devices. We’re doing well in this area, but it will take some time before we fully achieve that goal. Today, titles regularly come in and out of license and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time.”

Judging by Sony's stance on cross platform compatibility in the past, as well as their competitive position in this console war, we do not expect the company to relent on this issue any time soon. Sony has a competing digital distribution service on the Playstation 3 that sells Sony Pictures films for download. Other departments within Sony could also be feeling the pressure as the evident rise of digital distribution begins to eclipse the viability of BluRay as a movie format.

No matter what the reason for Sony's decision, the Netflix streaming service, while still awesome, just became a little bit less so.