Netflix on your Xbox?

If you’ve got an Xbox 360, you already know that you can buy HD versions of movies and TV shows through the Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store. And in an effort to help expand the 360 from video game console to entertainment center, Microsoft has announced a partnership with Netflix that would allow you to instantly stream movies and TV shows directly to your TV. “A growing library of more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes” will be made available by Netflix for Xbox Live users when the partnership goes live this fall. To take advantage of this shnazzy new deal, you need to be an Xbox Live Gold Member as well as have a Netflix membership. On top of that there will be no additional fees. Sez the press release: “From the Netflix Web site, members simply add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant Queues. Those choices will be automatically displayed on the TV screen via Xbox 360 and available to watch instantly.” Basically it turns your Xbox into that Roku/Netflix set top box that has been available through Amazon for $99. All this and Microsoft has dropped the price of the 20GB Xbox 360 to $300 (though it is being discontinued in favor of the 60GB version). Maybe now’s the time to put the Sega Genesis aside and upgrade?