It seems, at least here in Los Angeles, that the Xbox NXE update went off without a hitch.  With a Gold membership for Xbox and a paltry $8.99 monthly Netflix membership we are now able to stream HD, dynamically update the playlist and benefit from Netflix’s recursive recommendation strategy so that, with our 46″ HDTV there is really no reason to ever leave the house again. 

Pointing this out to a fellow video director whose credits include some A-list rock acts – we agreed when he said that purchasing an Xbox 360 for this feature alone is worth the cost of admission.  ”Hell I wouldn’t even play any games” he said.  We can’t disagree.  THIS is the way to watch movies; near real-time all-you-can-eat streaming of movies, in HD, with a catalog of titles 10k deep.  Kudos Microsoft – beyond the community games functionality (which will ultimately substantiate our site’s existence) and the avatars, this Netflix co-op is indeed a killer app.

The only caveat – Canadians and fans of Sony/Columbia catalog will have to wait this round out.

With the launch of the New Xbox Experience for the 360 console, independent game developers have cause to rejoice.  New in NXE is a unique channel for XNA Game Studios developers to flaunt their creations, creating an unprecedented platform for exposure for the aspiring and advanced independent game developer alike.

In the following video Kathleen Saunders discusses some of the new types of games she is seeing from the XNA labs, commenting that there are a variety of games the likes of which she has never before seen.  She also mentions that it takes only 48 hours for new game to go live on the channel!

Check out the NXE for indie game developers interview with Major Nelson and Kathleen Saunders here.