Netflix on Xbox 360

07-14-08
From PCWorld.com:

Microsoft and Netflix are jumping into bed today, it was announced at the annual E3 Media and Business Summit in Los Angeles, via an exclusive partnership which will bring select streaming content to the Xbox 360. This is an expansion of Netflix's plans to bring movies to home theaters via the Internet, which it already does via its Web site and the Roku Netflix set top box.
This new partnership will let Xbox 360 owners who are also Netflix subscribers stream "thousands of movies" to their game console. To use this service, much like the current Roku player, you'll have to initially select the movies via the Netflix Instant Queue feature on its Web site so you can later view them on your Xbox 360.
Still Netflix is only making a small fraction of its titles available for download through this partnerships with Roku and now Microsoft. The lack of titles appears to only be a minor complaint of the Roku offering, considering the player is apparently out of stock. Xbox 360 already have access to some movie titles and video content through the Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store.

Xbox 360 Premium Price Lowering

07-11-08
Looks like Microsoft's 20GB model of the Xbox will be getting a price slash this Sunday according to leaked photographs from a GameStop employee. The Premium model currently retails for $349.99 and will be dropped to $299.99. So does this mean a new configuration of the 360 is soon to follow? Read on for more from Kotaku:

Just in case all of those retailer circulars from Best Buy, KMart, et al, wasn't enough proof of an Xbox 360 price drop coming on Sunday, here's one more tidbit of proof.

A GameStop employee has sent us cell pics of the internal announcement for the coming Xbox 360 Pro price drop announcement. They also included pics of the shelf art all of which will go on display on July 13, the day before E3 kicks off with Microsoft's press conference.

So, while still not official, it seem pretty clear that come Sunday you'll be able to pick up an Xbox 360 Pro (aka Premium) for a penny shy of $300.

If true, I can't help but think that this means that Microsoft wanted to clear the decks of pricing news to make room for something more interesting, or at least they want more attention on, come their press conference.