Instant Watch Netflix service hitting the PS3 later this year.

PS3_member
It was exclusive for a while, and is still a great service, but the streaming of Netflix will not be an Xbox only feature soon. Netflix announced today that the service will be hitting the PS3 before the year is out, and it won’t cost any users an extra price. The service will still be available for the Xbox 360, but if you only have a PS3 then here’s the solution for you.

The one caveat of this whole situation is that the service has not yet been integrated into the PS3’s XMB interface. In order to launch the service Netflix will be shipping a blu-ray disc with the software on it to users. That disc will always be required to use the streaming Netflix service until a software update, expected next year, is released onto the PS3.

Some speculate this use of the blu-ray disc might be a way for Netflix to get around their deal with Microsoft. An interview made by Joystiq with Netflix hasn’t confirmed or denied this conjecture, but has said that the deal hasn’t broken their deal with Microsoft. The same interview asks about the same service on the Wii, but again says nothing for or against the idea.

Can’t say as I’m particularly excited about this, but I own both consoles and have been using the service on my Xbox 360 pretty consistently since the service came out and was improved in the last dashboard update. Netflix users can expect a pretty simple interface if the 360 version is any indication. PS3 owners will be able to utilize this all as long as they have the $8.99 service offered by Netflix.

Reserve your Netflix PS3 streaming disk here

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