Netflix streaming takes a serious hit, Columbia Pictures not watchable on 360

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Home New Xbox Experience

7:40 PM on 11.18.2008, Conrad Zimmerman

78 comments | 9747 views

Netflix streaming takes a serious hit, Columbia Pictures not watchable on 360 photo

#New Xbox Experience #Sony #Xbox 360

I fired up my 360 and installed the New Xbox Experience last night.. After making my avatar and fiddling with the menus, I sunk my teeth into the feature I was most looking forward to, Netflix streaming, and watched a couple episodes of a short-lived, Jay Mohr TV show.

This afternoon, I went back to watch some more, only to discover that the show was no longer listed in my Instant Watch Queue on the 360. A quick trip to the Netflix website revealed that, yes, it was still in my queue but, no, it was not available for Xbox.

Apparently, a lot of movies and TV shows have dropped off the face of the service over the last twenty-four hours. Joystiq did a little bit of matlocking and found the thing that they all have in common: Columbia Pictures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. What an amazing coincidence!

There is, at present, no way of knowing if a movie you want to watch is on the 360 blacklist until it's in your queue, where Netflix lists what videos cannot be watched on the console. So, if you were planning on curling up on the couch to watch The Freshman (as I had wanted to do later this evening), you're out of luck.

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next 50 comments

77 comments | showing # 1 to 50

Puppy Licks

wow, just.... wow.

vexed alex

Sony. What a bunch of douche bags.

t3h d0n

lmao

Spilt Milk

The negative publicity and backlash from this dick move will cost them more then they can imagine.

Arttemis

Fucking ridiculous bullshit. What the hell. This better be addressed and fixed.

robotplague

I assume you're talking about Action, which is fantastic. A great show that should have gotten more recognition than it did.

mix

I don't see why you guys are complaining about this as why would Sony let MS make money or what not from their stuff?

Does MS allow Sony things on the 360?....Nope

atastysammich

Oh, hell. Can't they be form a cease-fire for this one little service? Microsoft lets Rare hang out with their old lover Nintendo once in a while. What's next, Sony's Vaio computers coming factory-installed with Linux?

Infinite Obscurity

What....the....fuck?

mix

Forgot to add that Sony is still hurt over the FF fiasco...lol

Trowble

Ahhh... competition screwing over the consumers one person at a time

UnnDunn

Haha. Gotta love corporate brinkmanship. It's all so juvenile.

UnrealClock

Sounds a like a rather creative move.

Arttemis

@Mix - ?!?!?

Sony does make royalty money from subscriptions through Netflix by licensing their movies. This sophomoric, ridiculous, inane, juvenile, retarded, scrupleless posturing bt Sony isn't helping anyone. It's just legalized extortion.

Dao2-SKP

tahts a dick move by sony ;p funny and i can def see why but still dick :P

Atlas

So Sony is moving to bar all of their movies from playing on the Xbox 360? Did I really hear that right?

nukka jdav

As long as I have 30 Rock, I = Happy

power-glove

Mix, Sony's Vaio computers use the Windows OS. So MS does help Sony out a bit.

BluDesign

I can't wait for this to be over. I assume MS will probably put out some fluff press release next month stating that Sony is a neener-head and that their mother is so fat that she bought a PS3 to cook herself dinner.

Good job Sony. Thanks.

Just fair notice to you guys. Sony owns: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, and MGM. Fox holds distribution rights for Home Video of MGM titles, but Sony may be able to circumvent that on language. If MGM's library falls out of the streaming service, I'll cancel my Netflix, since Netflix apparently doesn't have a backbone in this matter.

vonneuton

Anyone able to contact someone to be sure this is the reason? Sound kind of speculative, but funny as hell. Dick move, if it is. But still funny.

awkwardmongoose

At least you can get Netflix at all, damn Canada:(

Trev

This seems way too ridiculous. It can't be what it seems. Sony Pictures movies are still available, if they were really doing what it looks like, those would be the first to go.

Arttemis

@DVDdesign - If that's the case, Sony will only be losing royalties from Netflix subscriptions.

How anyone can think this is a good idea for anyone is absurd.

Necros

So wait, it let you do it at first, then it just suddenly got dropped? That's extremely lame, especially when Sony's other media is normally quite open. I note that Bob Dylan and Coheed and Cambria are both under Sony's music labels; what if they only licensed the songs to the PS3 version?

MrSadistic

I don't get how this is a dick move, but whatever. Let the butt hurt continue.

Mxyzptlk

@ Mix: I can watch Sony/Columbia Pictures movies on DVD through my 360. I should be able to watch everything in Netflix's streaming catalog by the same logic. If Sony is indeed behind this, they can eat a bucket of dick.

mix

@Arttemis

Thanks!

The more you know ___----*

I had no idea, Sony is just grumpy or something.

Arttemis

2nd Update fom Joystiq:

It appears that the sudden yoinking of Columbia Pictures films from NXE Instant Queue access is a licensing issue with Sony after all. MTV Multiplayer pinged us with word that, on the rental service's official blog, Netflix corp. communications VP Steve Swasey writes:

"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. In the case of Xbox 360, a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox game console. Those titles are still available to be watched on subscribers' computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they'll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly."

mix

@Powerglove and Mxyzptlk

Totally makes sense, I was thinking just video games though.

It does make no sense really........

Ginzy

Haha, i can see it now, 360 fanboys boycotting spider-man 4 amongst others because of this
I can see the pettyness coming!

SunRa73

Gotta love the free market.

Trowble

@Mxyzptlk: You are correct sir!

wardrox

THE BIGGEST MOMENT ON THE INTERNET.

Hardey har.

GrayFox

Total dick move, but it's business. Put yourself in Sony's shoes.. would you not do everything you can to fuck with the company which has already taken a huge bite out of your gaming division, and may even usurp you in the near future?

It's just too bad that the end user is the one who takes the brunt of this attack. Won't someone ever think of the end user???

Celdurant

I doubt this is blatant douchebagism, since Sony Pictures isn't retarded, and probably likes its money coming in the way it is, and wouldn't let it's products be lost to potential Netflix customers. Besides, why Columbia Pictures specifically? Why not Sony Pictures first and foremost? I think there's something else afoot here.

People tend to think "Sony" as a whole, but I highly doubt Sony Computer Entertainment is running over to Sony Pictures, telling them what to do, saying "Oh, you guys can't allow your movies to be streamed to Xbox 360s, cuz they're our competition". Unless of course there was some major douche at Sony Corp over everybody's head, who just wanted to be an ass. But that's a different story.

AgentMOO

Goddammit

Alexradl

Why are you guys acting like you didn't expect this to happen? If I were Sony, I would do the exact same thing.

Rational Animal

arguecat sez:

all of you who are saying this or that makes no sense, sony is just doing it for the lulz, blah blah blah...you have absolutely no idea what the terms of their licensing agreement with netflix actually looks like. they may or may not get any incremental revenue whatsoever from microsoft's integration of netflix' online platform, in which case, sony has absolutely no incentive to aid the competition.

maguszxz

I agree with Celdurant on this one. I'm not a fanboy either console. Sony is not just one company as a whole, it is made up of many different divisions. Sony Computer Entertainment doesn't run Sony Pictures. That would be a dick move on their part. Sony is in the market of making money. If they can make that money back in division while isn't then so be it. Sony Pictures and Microsoft can cuddle up with no problems. Just don't call SCE and brag about it. They are still a little butt hurt about Socom right now.

Arttemis

Considering Netflix's VP's statements, this is (hopefully) only a very temporary issue with the legality of streaming to a new device, and not an absurd retaliation.

@alexradl: Yeah, intentionally preventing people from downloading your IPs, meaning you no longer receive the royalty fees associated with them, is completely logical.

@Rational Animal: I find it hard to believe that Netflix would deny monetary compensation to IP owners because of the specific peripheral brand - especially since the 360 isn't the only set-top device to do so.

seltzermx

I know its a business and its all about competition, but Sony's also treading a fine line.

What if Microsoft decides to stop selling Windows for use on VAIO computers? I'm pretty sure Sony would feel that.

Here's a good example of stepping a little over the competition line, into douchebagy-ness and its results:

Google gets spanked

BattyAdroit

Celdurant, Rational Animal and Maguszxz win the thread. .

Spilt Milk

Dear sony,

Go screw yourself.

http://www.themediamall.com/playon

Love,

Spilt

parrothead

Smart Move Sony, it is exactly what Microsoft would have done, if they you know owned a Studio

CelicaCrazed

The 360 owners weren't complaining when Sony's Music Division was providing service to the 360 and not the PS3. How the tables have turned...

Crunshii

can't help it but the first thing I did after reading the title was lol.

Its a bit messed up but hey, business is business. If Netflix didn't cover this shit with Sony before doing the whole xbox streaming thing, then guess what! its Netflix fault.

They should have covered this before, and if they did, its a dick move to offer the service but limited selection to not fixing its status with the property owner.

necrozen

MS does this kind of shit all the time - funny to see it thrown back at them. But I feel sorry for the folks who will miss out. I knew they'd have problems with this, just sounded too good, you know.

dronkmunk

It's ON!!!!

Redzie

Joystiq?

seamonkey420

@Crunshii

same here.. lmfao after reading. i could hear a boo ya from the sony fanboy side. i tell ya, these console wars be getting ugly.. the race for 2nd is a vicious one.. :P

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