Tag: Movies
Microsoft announces improvements to Xbox Live
Microsoft today announced plans to extend the services offered on Xbox live, pushing the console even further from being a pure games machine to include movies too. There’s also plenty of content for existing games, and a gameshow.
Starting with the movies, Microsoft has done a deal with NBC Universal, which means that a limited selection of films will be offered for people to buy using Microsoft points, in both standard and high definition. Average price is £3 – £5, depending on which format you want, and how new the film is.
Then there’s a selection of bonus content for a variety of games. More content for Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3, Tomb Raider, Fable 2, Lips, Rock Band, Guitar Hero World Tour and Scene It will be available, all of which will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 platform.
Lastly, there’s going to be some sort of weird quiz show thing called 1 vs 100. Over to Microsoft to explain it: “a completely exclusive, completely interactive television quiz show game giving gamers the chance to compete against each other and win real prizes”. Is anyone even remotely excited about that?
Overall, it’s a decent upgrade to the system and a ‘thankyou’ to owners, but I don’t think it’s going to be selling any new consoles over this. Especially when the company is banning people who identify themselves as a lesbian.
British Film Council launches FindAnyFilm.com: first thoughts
Film fans, this story’s for you. The British Film Council has spent £1 million on developing a new website called FindAnyFilm. It’s been seven months in development, and aims to combine cinema listings with links to buy DVDs or downloads, or watch films online.
The implementation is very simple – just put in the name of a film, actor/actress, genre, or the name of a cinema, and you’ll be presented with a list of relevant results. It’s well-implemented, though I ran into a few launch-day bugs, like not being able to display a map of where a specific cinema was. I’m sure that kind of thing will be fixed by the end of the week.
CONFIRMED: MGM to offer full-length films on YouTube
As we reported last Thursday, full-length movies are going to be hitting YouTube in the near future, and we now know that they’re going to come from 84-year-old film studio MGM. The studio has suffered financial trouble in recent years.
It’ll initially be uploading ancient episodes of American Gladiators, but following that, it’ll be putting up classics like Bulletproof Monk and The Magnificent Seven. There’ll also be officially-sanctioned clips from newer films like Legally Blonde. Unfortunately, as part of the deal, they’ll also be taking down thousands of user-uploaded clips from the James Bond and Rocky movies…
Full-length movies to hit YouTube
Sick of watching videos of people’s cats in crappy quality on YouTube? Soon you’ll be able to watch full-length movies in crappy quality on YouTube! And by “soon”, I mean possibly as early as next month.
Google would dearly love to launch an ad-supported streaming movie service, but given the flagrant copyright violations which occur there every second of ever day, the movie studios haven’t been too keen. However, two unnamed executives have confirmed that although it’s not “imminent”, a project along those lines could go live in the next “30 to 90 days”…
Amazon launches brilliant "WindowShop" website
The value of a great interface is underrated. Many online shops look more like a spreadsheet than a pleasurable retail experience (I’m looking at you, iTunes). That’s why I’m really excited by a new front-end Amazon has created for their site, called WindowShop…
Sky offer 50% off HD box for new and existing customers
If you’ve got a massive 42″ plasma, but you’re still watching standard definition TV and DVD on it, then I’m sure you know you’re not getting the most out of your technology. What you need is some kind of HD provider, but so far they’ve been rather prohibitively expensive. That’s why I wanted to point out to you that Sky are extending their 50% off HD box offer. They haven’t been shouting about enough – it’s a good deal…
First simultaneous multiplatform film release – why did it take so long?
I’ve never fully understood the reasons that film studios always release movies to the cinemas first, then rental, then DVD, then finally video-on-demand services and TV. It baffles me why they’d want to make it harder for consumers to enjoy their products, especially now that digital distribution means that there’s no reason why film studios can’t just let people buy a film as soon as it’s ready.
Ghostbusters busts ghosts, maybe kicks off a new format war?
If there’s something strange, in the neighborhood, who are you going to call? Failing the ambulance, the fire brigade and the police, your best bet is probably the fourth emergency service, the Ghostbusters (lets face it, mountain rescue and the coast guard are, if anything, less valid than the Ghostbusters, especially in inland urban areas). So it’s a little odd that despite the abundance of cop films, hospital dramas and, er, London’s Burning, that there are only two films and a couple of spin-off TV series about the Ghostbusters. There is a silver lining to this travesty, though: the latter is almost ubiquitously available. Now not only can you own Ghostbusters on DVD and, presumably, internet download and Blu-ray, but Argos are selling the first film, bizarrely, on a USB memory stick.
Amazon set to launch its own streaming movie rental service "in the next few weeks"
Amazon’s big boss Jeff Bezos, speaking at the D6 conference, said the retail behemoth is planning to launch its own online video rental service rather soon.
That’s pretty much all he said on the matter, although he pointed out you’d be buying movies individually on an “a la carte” basis rather than paying a subscription, then watching via a streaming…
iTunes could get flexible pricing thanks to rumoured HBO deal
According to sources, HBO could begin selling TV shows on the US iTunes Store at variable prices.
Until now, TV shows and music has been sold at fixed prices, and that was, in part, the reason why NBC pulled some of its shows from iTunes last year. Apple’s current thinking is that a single price for this content, regardless of whether it’s a new release or archive, makes it simpler for the consumer…
