Aral Balkan (and others) pointed out that the Nintendo Wii now supports Flash Player 7 via their release of the Opera browser for Nintendo Wii, currently in beta (trial version) and planned for final release in March of 2007 (press release).
WiiNintendo.net offers web design guidelines for the Wii browser
So, to summarize the Flash presence on modern gaming systems:
- Nintendo Wii [check]
- Playstation 3 [check]
- Playstation Portable (PSP) [check]
- Xbox 360 (special embedded version developed by MSFT) [check]
I don’t think the Nintendo DS Lite has Flash, though it does have an Opera Browser.
Pretty cool, eh?
I think that it’s so cool, a device like this that support flash will be the future of gaming but not only games, also application will become so interesting to develop!
Prety cool Mike..But what exactly is “special embedded version developed by MSFT” for the xBox?
M$ doesn’t like the Macromedia(oups)Adobe version?
[md] As I understand it, MSFT chose to implement the Flash Player in a very specific way using our SDK so that they could use it for powering games for Xbox Live arcade, such as “Uno”. Technically, any “embedded” version of the Flash Player would be “developed” by the company who licenses the SDK. I believe Sony may have done something similar. [/md]
its absolutely wonderful to see this happening, now we only need to do the same for the apollo framework ;)
Hi Mike.I made some comments in your blog which by the way i love to read but never – never my comments were published.Is there a problem with your filter(technical) or you think i’m a spammer or something?I can’t find an email in order to send this to you so i just hope that you can read this..
[md] Hello, Savvas. I’m not sure. I approve all comments that aren’t obviously spam. I don’t think our server automatically deletes comments if it thinks they’re spam – however, we do have an IP address blacklist for known spammers. If this comment got through, however, I would assume all of your comments should. Sometimes it takes me a few days to approve comments because I have to remember to go in and manually approve them. I’m sorry if some of your comments don’t make it through. It’s not intentional. [/md]
Mike,
Do you have material explaining the Flash player for the XBox? From my research, I remember a third party game shipped with a custom player as the exe and the games assets were a .swf. If I am developing games for live can I use a Flash player? If so is it for downloadable games only and where is information on it?
For reference on the PS3 and WII I did a simple capabilities dump for the WII, PS3, and the PC then did diffs against each other. I posted the results at http://www.kennybunch.com/blogarchives/52
[md] Hi, Kenny. You are right in that some game developers such as Electronic Arts have written their own run-times similar to the Flash Player for controlling things like in-game menus and on-screen overlays. In some cases they use an embedded Flash Player licensed from us, and in some cases (like EA) they do their own custom run-time and use the Flash authoring tool to author the UI for their games (which may involve publishing to something other than SWF).
I’m not sure of the details on how Flash is implemented on the Xbox 360, but I believe they licensed the Flash Player SDK from us and then wrote their own custom embedded version of the Player for their console. To my knowledge, it’s not available to third-party developers. I assume there’s a way to license your content directly to Microsoft for syndication in the Xbox Live arcade. [/md]
Thank you Mike..I guess that is was my fault because i didn’t filled the URL box.I’m really sorry.
By the way i wish you the best in your new position and i hope that the new Flash Manager(his name is..) will do the same good job as you did.As of Apollo..What can i say..Downey, Chambers…It’s already a success!
Those, i think were my comments (i hope all of them..)
Sorry for my English..
Cheers!
Oh.. as for the original post – comment..
What do you mean by “special embedded version developed by MSFT” for the xBox?
[md] Thanks, Savvas. I always appreciate your comments. If you check out the comments in the post that I did announcing my move to Apollo, you’ll see that I did approve your comments their right after you submitted them. ;-)
When I say, “special embedded version developed by MSFT” I mean that they’re not simply shipping the browser plugin like the Wii and PS3 are. Microsoft created a custom implementation of the Flash Player that is embedded in the Xbox 360 OS and allows for standalone SWF files to play. You’ll see examples of this if you login to Xbox Live (which is by far the best online gaming network, IMO) and browse through their downloadable “mini games” you’ll find several that were written in Flash, though they aren’t identified as Flash games. Sometimes you can tell if they were done in Flash. Otherwise, you have to know someone in the Microsoft Casual Games division, like me. :) I had a great meeting with their team several months ago and they confirmed that most of their casual games are built in Flash. One example is a game called “Uno”. [/md]
About “special embedded version developed by MSFT”
ok i just read it..
Thanks for the info Mike..
You are doing SO good..THANK YOU!
When will the nintendo wii come out on the latest news about please tell me ahead of time so I will know.
So its a “NEXT” GEN system and it supports Flash that came out several years ago? Flash is currently on version 9!!!
It could at least support 8 which is already almost 2 years old so you can watch decent video on it. Why Flash 7? Is it not powerful enough for 8?
Its like designing a new car and make it run on charcoal and steam, makes no sense to me.
Hi MD. Can you please put in light on which version of the Flash Player is embedded on the Xbox 360?
[md] Sorry, but I don’t know. I think it’s either 6 or 7. I know it’s not any newer version. And as far as I know, it’s only accessible to Microsoft. [/md]
I wish the Nintendo Wii played in HD.
But you’re missing Flash running on Linux running on PS3… ;) Technically, how hard would it be to compile a Linux/PPC version of Flash (given that you already support both Linux and the PowerPC separately)?
Seriously, looking forward to Flash 9 on Wii.
hi Mike!
I had a conversation with the people at Opera on the reason why they didn’t put the more recent player 8 or 9 on the Nintendo Wii. And they say “because it’s on a device and not on a Win/Mac/Linux OS, this is in the hands of Adobe”. Only reason according to Opera: the latest SDK is only Flash Player 7 based. This sounds realy odd to me, as it’s 2 releases behind? When do you think that SDK will see an upgrade and how long do you estimate we have to wait to play Flash 8/9 on the Wii?
I’m confused. Is there some sort of business strategy to withholding the SDK’s. When I discovered that Wii Opera supported Flash, I was thrilled. I thought, man, I’ve got years of experience developing Flash applications, I can deliver webware to the Wii! In minutes I was sorely disappointed. I’m way developing for Flash 7. On the other hand, I’ve been exploring alternatives to Flash development and picking up speed. Could be that Flash just isn’t the right platform for my projects. I can’t hold myself back waiting for business strategies to play out, if that be why phones, PDAs, and now game console developers can’t package the latest Flash players.
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title Nintendo Wii supports Flash Player 7. Thanks for informative article
When will Flash 9 be supported by the Wii? It really limits the expience when you try to watch a video and only a black box appears. The Wii was a huge present this year and a lot of people like me will be downloading the Internet channel expecting to see the web like they do on every other browser and be very dissapointed when they cannot. This problem is not just going to go away. Is there a solution in the works? Ps I sent this from my Wii.
I too feel the desperation for flash 9 on the wii. There must be a solution in the pipe line surely?
Very disappointed, can’t watch yahoo videos, or listen to xm radio, etc… my old xbox can do more than the Wii. Pretty sad they can’t put flash 9 on Opera. What a JOKE.
The Wii should have a newer version of flash, but why not. Nobody can give us (wii internet channel users & consumers) any kind of a clear answer… If there is a valid reason for there not to be Flash Player 8 or 9 on the Wii, oh well, but at least let us know.
the wii internet is good but it would be better with a more recent version of flash to support the later sites. this comment was made using my wii.
someone e-mail me when flash 8 sdk has been released…
drizztmaster@hotmail.co.uk
i cant find download flash player to my wii please could you send me a link or something thanks billy
After some more research I have heard rumors that Adobe does not have a development kit for the wii because “its not a priority.” It’s also rumored that a kit may or may not be in development, but (in my opinion) by the time the kit for 8 or 9 is complete, flash 10 or 11 will be out…
I think that Nintendo, Opera, and Wii owners need to wake Adobe up to see that the wii should be a priority.
ALL videos work for me, fine even movies.but i downloaded it yesterday.com
not .com at the end looool
please tell me how discharge the flash player in the wii
Angry much?
thats cool
look adobe just make a flash player (preferably v10) that can be downloaded on the wii please!
nice post. This what i looking for. Thank for the info
I decide to buy wii soon after read your post
That’s very nice.I absolutely love the Wii!! Although it took me quite a while to finally get my hands on this console, it was definitely worth the wait. Wii Fit and Wii Sports have made exercise fun for me; thank you, Nintendo
The NDSi is the best handheld ever imo, I don’t care what those PSP fanboys say….
Hello, I just thought I would post a comment and inform you that your web site layout is really screwed up on the Firefox browser. Seems to work OK in Internet Explorer though. Anyhow keep up the good work.
please tell me how to get flash player on your wii…step by step if you can