The race between Sony and Microsoft to turn their respective games consoles into the best media centre is well and truly on. Microsoft has added YouTube, Netflix and recently VEVO, and today Sony has added Amazon’s Instant Video streaming service to the PS3.
Sony recently teased us about a new addition to its home console, and now we finally know. Amazon Instant brings over 120,000 movies and TV shows for rental on the PS3 for absolutely anyone, although members of Amazon’s Prime service get a better deal: unlimited anytime access to the Prime Instant Videos category, which contains over 17,000 films and TV shows including Breaking Bad and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Content quality is top notch, too, with over 25,000 movies available in HD quality, as well as TV shows. To celebrate the launch of Amazon Instant on the PS3, the first episodes of over 100 TV shows will be available to stream completely free for anyone.
Amazon’s Whispersync cloud service works with the app too, so you can start watching something on your PS3, pause it and continue on your Amazon Kindle Fire tablet – that it, if you’re based in the U.S where they’re sold, or if you’ve been lucky enough to somehow get hold of one.
To get the application you’ll need to head into the TV/Video Services category within the PS3’s menu bar. You can also visit the Playstation Store, where Amazon Instant can be found in the Media & Apps category, available for download.
As Amazon likes to boast, the Playstation 3 is the first and only console to play host to its Instant Video app. We’ve seen some jealous Xbox gamers talking about it already, and although the Xbox offers other video on-demand services that the PS3 doesn’t, like Netflix, Amazon’s service seems to be the best around and one that everyone wants.
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