Streaming movies hit the Wii

Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners have been able to purchase and stream movies from their game machines for years. Now Wii owners in Japan are seeing media center functionality as well.

The company has partnered with Sonic’s CinemaNow division to provide content from its 14,000 title collection. (That collection includes feature films, concerts and shorts for rent of purchase.) The service will be called “Everyone’s Theater Wii”.

It’s important to note once again that this service will be available in Japan only. But it’s noteworthy as this is Nintendo’s first real step at acknowledging that customers want more than just games from their game systems.

No U.S. integration has been announced, but today’s announcement is likely to fire up the rumor mill once again. (Netflix is the most-mentioned candidate for a U.S. streaming partner. Word came yesterday of a user survey soliciting feedback on demand for streaming video on the Wii.)

Netflix, of course, already has a game machine partnership with Microsoft for the Xbox.

(Thanks Gizmodo for the heads up about the press release.)