The folks over at Hulu originally promised Wii users would have access to their Hulu Plus streaming service by the end of 2011, but things didn’t exactly pan out the way they had hoped.
Well, after a few extra months of waiting, the Nintendo-faithful are finally being rewarded for their patience: the Hulu Plus app can be downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel. The app itself is free, but actually using it will cost users the standard $7.99/month.
While I’m glad Hulu finally managed to make good on their word, their work isn’t over yet. 3DS owners are still patiently waiting for their chance to stream back episodes of The New Girl, and let’s not forget that Nintendo has been hard at work on the forthcoming Wii U console for months now. With any luck streaming content providers like Netflix and Hulu can quickly adapt to that new multi-screen paradigm.
After all, what better way is there to revel in togetherness than for two people to watch two completely separate video streams at the same time?
Joking aside, it’s heartening to see Nintendo get serious about streaming content so late into the Wii’s lifespan. As their hardware prices drop (and you can bet that the Wii will sink below $150 at some point), the Wii could eventually find itself competing with other low-cost streaming devices like the Roku 2 series. While the Wii would come up short up in terms of PC connectivity, its decent web browser and support for services like Hulu and Netflix could bolster its adoption into even more non-gamer households.
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