I know that everyone’s been excited to hear any news
on the very popular Video Store on Xbox Live Marketplace coming
to Canada, and I’ve got the lowdown for you! I was able
to track down Scott Nocas, Global Marketing Manager, Xbox
LIVE with Microsoft in Redmond, and ask him some questions
about what Canadians can expect ...
Jade: Okay, Scott ... here’s the question
that’s been on everyone’s mind: When will Canadians
be able to download content from the Video Store on Xbox Live
Marketplace?
Scott: It goes live at 4:01 p.m. PST on
December 10th!
Jade: That’s such exciting news! Nice
to see that Microsoft was able to get Canadians the Video
Store before the end of Fall. Now, I know a lot of people
expected that the Video Store would be launching in Canada
with the Fall Update ... how come the launch is a week later?
Scott: We pushed it back because we thought
that the service was big enough to deserve its own launch,
and we wanted to make sure we tested everything and had it
all ready so you had a great experience when you try it. Right
away at launch, you’ll be able to download to your heart’s
content.
Jade: Ah, that makes a lot of sense! Well,
now that we know it’s coming on December 11th ... what
will be available to Canadians at launch?
Scott: We’re going to have the same
number of movies at launch in Canada that we had in the U.S.
at launch. We have movies from Warner Bros., Maple Pictures
and MPI. We’re going to have movies such as 300, Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ocean’s 13, The Reaping, Delta
Farce, Air Guitar Nation and Texas Chainsaw Massacre to name
just a few.
Jade: If you haven’t seen it, I highly
recommend Air Guitar Nation. One of the funniest movies I’ve
seen all year. Okay, Scott, those are some great movies to
choose from, but how come no TV shows?
Scott: Any time we bring something new to
Xbox Live Marketplace we want to make sure that it’s
an amazing consumer experience. We make sure we have a ton
of content and we make sure we have local content. We also
want to bring it to multiple countries and, right now, we
really wanted to focus on the movies because we felt that
was really one of the better offerings that Xbox in the U.S.
had.
Jade: And will anything be available in
HD?
Scott: We’ll have content from all
three of our partners in high definition, including 300, Ocean’s
13, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Condemned.
Jade: And now for the nickels and dimes,
how much will the movies cost in Canada?
Scott: The pricing is comparable to what
you see in Canada for other video on demand services. For
Library titles, movies will be 310 Microsoft Points (Standard
Definition) and 460 Points (High Definition), and for Current
titles, they’ll be 460 Points (SD) and 610 Points (HD).
Jade: Is there anything else you’d
like to share with the Canadian Xbox community?
Scott: Absolutely. We’ll be updating
movies on a monthly basis. As new releases come in from our
partners, we’ll put them up on the same day that everyone
else has it, and we’ll be adding to the Library titles.
At launch, the U.S. Video Store had 37 titles, but we now
have over 300 movies. So, for Canada, we plan to aggressively
add movies as fast as we can.
Jade: Well, Scott, thank you so much for
taking the time to speak with me, and letting the Canadian
Xbox community in on the news about the Xbox Live Marketplace
Video Store!
And here’s the complete list of titles that will be
available at launch from the Canadian Video Store on Xbox
Live Marketplace:
Warner Bros.
