Disney has confirmed that its own streaming service, Disney+, is coming to all current-gen consoles, and yes, that includes the Nintendo Switch.
The streaming service was formally announced last year and with it, Disney looks to wrest some market share away from the big-name streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. The company spent the better part of the past few years acquiring IPs across multiple genres, as well as being emboldened with the blazing success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Star Wars franchise.
The official reveal for Disney+ last night included all three major consoles (PS4, Xbox One and the Switch).
In terms of the reveal, this is quite surprising, seeing as how even Netflix is not on the Switch platform. Other than YouTube across all regions, the US version only carries Hulu, while the Japanese version comes with NicoNico.
Disney+ is expected to build its content around Disney’s main entertainment studios, which include:
- Walt Disney Pictures
- Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Pixar
- Marvel Studios
- Lucasfilm
- 20th Century Fox
- National Geographic
This service is also expected to run alongside Hulu, in which Disney already holds 60 percent ownership after its purchase of Fox. Disney+ will have approximately 7,000 television episodes and around 500 films, including content from all its main entertainment studios. New releases from the recently purchased Fox will not be immediately available on the service, as Fox has an output deal with HBO until 2022. Possibly its biggest acquisition is The Simpsons, formerly owned by Fox. All thirty seasons of the long-running animated series are expected to debut during the service’s launch.
In addition to this, the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe catalog will be available to stream, with Captain Marvel being the first theatrically-released Disney film to stream exclusively within the service. New spin-off series are also being produced for both the Marvel and Star Wars brands, with the latter formally announcing The Mandalorian during the Star Wars Celebration event in Chicago last week.
The news of a streaming service hitting a versatile platform like the Switch is good news, and we can’t wait to see what other streaming sites will follow.
