The vast majority of Xbox content announcements tend to include a big old “US only” sticker, but it looks like Australia is finally getting some Xbox movie love — and in hi-def no less.
In amongst a slew of announcements at the E3 games conference (being tracked exhaustively by our sibling site Kotaku) was Microsoft outlining plans to offer instant on-demand hi-definition movies via Xbox Live, complete with 1080p image quality and 5.1 surround sound. And while we haven’t yet seen even low-def movies on Xbox Live in Australia, apparently that’s about to change, according to a company press release:
Microsoft announced it will more than double the number of markets where Xbox LIVE offers movies, growing from eight to 18, by adding Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Xbox LIVE members in these markets will have access to instant on 1080p video
Of course, that still leaves a massive unanswered question: who has a big enough download cap to handle all that content? Unless Microsoft lines up a deal with a partner ISP (history suggests Telstra’s Big Pond as a likely candidate), that might be too rich for most of our blood.
Microsoft also suggests that an 8MBps connection is needed for on-demand HD, which knocks out most connections — apparently the movie will automatically adjust based on download speeds. That could mean pixel city in the corner of your nice HD television, but overall it still sounds like a nice step forward for on-demand content (or will be when it happens later this year).
Mikey
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 12:40 PMDon’t iiNet customers have all xbox live content unmetered? I assume this would count as well.
Timbo
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 1:09 PMXbox live traffic is unmetered on iiNet. Don’t know of that will apply to this though…
Wesley
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 2:48 PMiiNet do indeed have uncapped access to Live. Don’t see why this should be any different.
Really looking forward to this alternative to the super crappy Bigpond movies.
Joshy
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 9:17 PMLooks like I am going to have to buy a bigger xbox 360 HDD. It is a pity they make you use there overpriced ones.
Craig Muldoon
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 10:15 PMYeah, iiNet have unmetered content for XBox live – an they would need to go out of the way to not include the movie data. It would make iiNet actually worth while given that XBL usage at the moment is stuff all – even if you’re a ’5 hour a day’ gamer.
Liam
Sunday, June 7, 2009 at 11:55 PMthat sounds awesome….does anyone know when this is actually coming to australia? or how much it will cost? cheers.
Punker87
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 12:25 AMiinet sucks though, they offered me 1gb per month for 50$$
RIP OFF
Daniel Sullivan
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 8:47 PMWestnet also has unmetered xbox live.
Amy
Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 10:48 PMThe problem is is that it just doesn’t work that well and there’s not a massive range of movies. Maybe when they develop it more it will be worth something but for now I’ll stick with Sky Box office. Or the cinema.