Nintendo hopes to leverage the global success of its Wii by selling videos on the console — first in Japan, and perhaps elsewhere, if all goes well.

Ad agency Dentsu will help market the model to the Japanese. Dentsu's anime production firm, Pioneer LDC, is developing content for the medium. (Pioneer, which can loosely be imagined as Japan's version of Pixar, had a hand in a number of major works in the country. Dentsu purchased it five years ago.)

The videos will be available to Wii users to download online as rentals. In its present iteration, Wii is not capable of playing DVDs.

Storing the media may present a challenge. The system also lacks a hard drive — and the current alternative, SD (Secure Digital) memory cards, "are an inconvenience at best," Ars Technica noted.

Rivals Sony and Microsoft have each moved into video, with Sony pushing Blu-ray on the PlayStation 3, and both companies offering downloadable video for their respective consoles.

But the Wii may have an advantage. The growing popularity of casual gaming made it one of the hottest gift items of the holiday season, and having Wal-Mart sell the console on its website dramatically augmented US sales.

Wii has been no less popular in Japan since its high-profile launch in 2006. And its home market is a good place to start pushing video, given the number of digital music downloads its population made in August 2008.

Online/digital content and services for internet-connected game consoles represents big business for the three players: Some $8.7 billion will be generated from such sales by 2013, a recent study found.