If you own a PlayStation 3 and subscribe to Amazon Prime, it’s your lucky day.
Amazon today announced the availability of an Amazon Instant Video app for the PS3, making the Sony console the first to offer the Seattle company’s streaming video service. Amazon joins Netflix, Hulu Plus and other video services on the PS3. More than 120,000 videos and TV shows are available to rent or purchase through Amazon Instant Video on the console.
People who subscribe to Amazon Prime will get access to 17,000 of those videos at no extra charge as part of the $79/year Amazon Prime service, as Amazon extends that feature of Amazon Prime to the PS3. (Other Amazon Prime features include free shipping and once-a-month Kindle book rentals.)
Amazon doesn’t yet offer a similar native app on Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which also has Netflix, Hulu and other video services. Watching Amazon Instant Videos on the Microsoft console involves streaming videos over a home network from a Windows PC as part of a complicated workaround.
Amazon isn’t commenting on the possibility of offering an Instant Video app on additional game consoles, but given Xbox Live’s push into entertainment, it’s hard to imagine that they aren’t at least exploring the possibility.
