(Image source: Gear Live )



BY EVAN THOMAS

ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY

 

Looking for another streaming video option on your Xbox? Amazon on Tuesday announced Instant Video for the Xbox 360 .

 

Users with an Xbox Live Gold account can instantly stream more than 17,000 movies and shows . Amazon’s Whispersync will keep things lined up across devices — you can pause on your tablet, resume on your Xbox, and use Kinect voice commands to control playback.

 

17,000 titles may not seem like a lot when compared to Netflix, but GigaOM says it’s about more than just library size .

 

“That’s still substantially less than Netflix’s around 50,000 movies and TV show episodes, but catalog is only one piece of the puzzle. Presence on connected devices plays a big role as well in the battle for the living room…”

 

Of course, if the numbers are important, GeekWire points out you can actually watch some 120 thousand shows from Amazon on your Xbox. You just can’t buy them there .

 

“People without an Amazon Prime subscription will be able to watch, on the Xbox 360, movies and TV shows that they’ve purchased or rented from Amazon Instant Video. However, they’ll have to make the purchase or rental on a computer or tablet.”

 

Still, VentureBeat says, another outlet for video content is good news for Amazon .

 

“An Amazon Xbox Live app makes perfect sense for the company. Not only has media usage on the Xbox risen above the console’s main purpose of gaming, but it’s also part of Microsoft’s overall strategy to break into the digital media market.”

 

And as Time points out, the strategy is working well .

 

“This helps cement its position as an all-in-one home entertainment device, which is necessary to expand its appeal beyond gamers.” 

 

To help expand that appeal, Microsoft and Amazon are running a promotion: Xbox Live Gold account holders get a free month of Amazon Prime — and access to all that instant content.