With less than a week left before the Electronic Entertainment Expo, aka E3, in Los Angeles Microsoft and Amazon have made available the much anticipated Amazon Instant Video App for the Xbox 360 console.
It is kind of strange to see a significant app be released ahead of the E3 Xbox 360 Press Conference which is just six days away. Might have been bigger bang for the buck next Monday but this might also mean they have some pretty rocking things to talk about during that presser.
Anyway, back to this great addition to the Xbox 360 App Store. The Amazon Instant Video app will let you sign in to your Amazon account and allow you to rent or purchase any video they have in their library. Currently that totals over 17,000 videos with last weeks addition of the Paramount video library to the collection. This rent/purchase process would work much like it does on any other device you can access Amazon Instant Videos on. Your progress is synched between any device you view videos from so you will pick up where you left off last time you were watching anything no matter which device you use. You also will have access to your entire digital video library that you have on Amazon already.
If you are a member of Amazon Prime, which gives you free two day shipping and access to the Amazon Instant Video streaming library, you are also going to love this app because you can now stream Prime Instant Videos to your Xbox 360. Of course you do need an Xbox Live Gold membership which can cost anywhere between $30 and $60 a year depending on the deals that are available.
Some of the features highlighted in the Amazon press release for this app are:
- The ability to browse and play videos with the Xbox 360 remote control or Kinect voice and gesture commands.
- Instant streaming of thousands of high-definition movies and TV episodes that start and resume in just seconds.
- Watchlist for Amazon Instant Video – allows customers to create a list of things they want to watch, and find those movies and TV episodes easily.
- Whispersync – lets customers seamlessly switch from one device to another. Customers can start streaming a movie on Kindle Fire, then pick up right where they left off on their Xbox 360 console and avoid the frustration of having to find their spot.
- Your Video Library – customers can access their purchases from Amazon Instant Video on the Xbox 360 or any of the hundreds of other devices enabled for Amazon Instant Video. For a list of compatible devices click here.
I may have to move my Xbox 360 back into the living room with all these great options available now for watching videos!
