Amazon Instant Video now available on Nintendo Wii
If you haven't yet upgraded to Nintendo's newest console, the Wii U, and are still stuck on the original Wii, not all hope is lost. The company is still supporting the older console. Case in point: they just announced availability …
Context & Ripple Effects
Nintendo has been building the Wii into a video device for years: it floated video delivery back in December 2008, then added Netflix streaming in January 2010. Amazon Instant Video arriving in January 2013 extends that playbook — and lands just weeks after the Wii U launched at $299.99 in North America, with Reggie Fils-Aime calling the new console essentially sold out at retail.
The timing matters because Nintendo is explicitly still supporting the older Wii rather than forcing an upgrade path, and the pickup was broad: Amazon.com itself plus Engadget, The Next Web, Joystiq and Nintendo of America's own account all carried the news on or about January 14, 2013.
First-order effects
- Original Wii owners gain a second major subscription-streaming option alongside Netflix, making the aging console more viable as a cheap living-room video box without buying a Wii U.
Second-order effects
- Amazon gets incremental reach into tens of millions of installed Wiis at near-zero marginal cost, while Nintendo buys goodwill and shelf life for legacy hardware during the Wii U transition.
Third-order effects
- If every console generation now ships with a streaming-app catalog as table stakes, the value of a console shifts partly toward being a set-top box — which pressures Nintendo to keep services flowing across old hardware even mid-generation.
The trend: Game consoles are doubling as general-purpose streaming-video platforms, with each service launch extending the commercial life of prior-generation hardware.