GDC is underway in San Francisco and the physical format war is dead. So what do the two have to do with one another? Well, it appears Microsoft might make an announcement this week at GDC about a partnership with Netflix. Microsoft definitely played their cards right by not including an internal HD DVD drive and downloadable content appears to be the next big thing. Microsoft has been known to drop a few bombs at GDC in years past, but I’m not sure how likely this rumor is going to materialize. A developers conference hardly seems fitting to announce a content deal.
Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, had this to say about a possible deal.
“A partnership with Netflix gives Microsoft a partner that already streams movies to over 7 million subscribers through their PCs, and encourages these subscribers to sign up for the Xbox Live service in order to stream movies to their TVs.”
Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey was quoted earlier as saying,
“Netflix intends to be in a lot of boxes that get into the TV, whether its game systems or set-top boxes or next-gen DVD players. We want to be in a 100 devices to get the Internet to the TV.”
It could happen. I’d probably sign up for Netflix again if this happens. What about you guys?