the 360 will be partnering with netflix on providing movie downloads. but why is sony providing the service? the ps3 has a blu ray drive, don't people already use the blu ray drive to watch movies [hd movies]?
well if you buy the movies from the PSN network, its more money for Sony, rather than going to the store and buying the blu-ray discs (because some of the money goes to the third parties)
The biggest reason is that Microsoft does it with the 360 already so they don't want to be seen as inferior by not offering these services when they've been helping fill Microsoft's pockets. This provides a service that allows users to obtain video without leaving the comfort of their home, the lower quality compared to blu-ray discs is the trade off for convenience. Also, I don't think Sony is to fond of rental stores making money off of their products, I remember before the PS3 was launched when they tossed around the idea of content protection to make it so that once a game is put into a PS3, it would only play in that PS3 from then on. Obviously there was too much of a public outcry for them to go through with this so the idea was thrown out, but to some degree I imagine the download service is an extension of that.
It's a lot cheaper buying them online, but you have to download the damn thing, and it's too safe. Bluray movies here are quite expensive. That would be really gay if they incorporated that "one game, one PS3".
what i find weird is that they're often promoting high definition [high definition video game system with high definition video game software and high definition audio and video systems] and yet they provide a mediocre movie download. also, with purchasing a blu-ray movie, you have something of value, even when the item depreciates, there is still value as compared to the downloaded movie.
