Business / Technology

To take on Netflix, Hulu and YouTube with a first-rate streaming video service, HBO came to Seattle two years ago and assembled a team of engineers with experience building global entertainment services.

The HBO GO app developed by HBO’s Seattle office for the Xbox One. Credit: Microsoft

It’s beginning to look a lot like Amazon’s Christmas, everywhere you go.

Seattle-based RealNetworks announced today that it’s laying off about 85 employees, or about 10 percent of the staff remaining after a series of reorganizations at the struggling digital-media company.

It’s not quite Netflix for games, but Electronic Arts may be heading that direction with a new subscription service announced today.

Streaming video service Hulu has hired a veteran of Microsoft’s Xbox team to head its Seattle office building “living room” technologies.

This could be a big year for Seattle streaming music pioneer Rhapsody, now that Apple’s drawing attention to the category with a possible $3.2 billion acquisition of a rival service.

All for just $10 per month

Hulu doesn’t yet have a set-top box but the online video service today announced a new remote control.

Further evidence that video games have become an art form came today from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which announced that addition of “Halo 2600″ and “Flower”  to its permanent collection.

They are the first games added to the national collection and both have Seattle ties.

Sony image of “Flower”

It’s expensive and not fully baked yet, but I fell for Sony’s PlayStation 4 after it carried me away on a gaming binge last week.

Normally I’m not a fan of flashing lights on a box below the TV set, but I love the LED light bar on top of Sony’s sleek new PlayStation 4 console.