November Rain (When It Rains, It Pours)

This is not necessarily about what you think…well, sorta.  I just took a look at recent posts, and realized…WOW, there’s a lot going on in November.  Let’s take a quick look.

• Rock Band 2 to get 20 bonus tracks for download.  This is supposed to be released this week, still not out.  In the DLC world, that’s ~$20-40 worth of songs to play, for no additional cost.  Very cool, can’t wait to get this playing.
• BlackBerry Bold and Storm both released in the U.S.  We know the Bold came out this week, and the Storm doesn’t have an official date yet.  It’s likely we will see both of these in November.
• Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy get’s released.  The album 16 years in the making is coming to Best Buy exclusively on November 23.
• Xbox Live update on November 19, known as the New Xbox Experience (NXE).  Lot’s of cool updates, for Xbox 360 users. Avatars, online parties/playing, and the biggie…Netflix streaming.  The best part, NXE is free and the online features are included to Xbox Live subscribers.
• Netflix, Starz, and lot’s of network shows straming via Xbox 360 (see above).  This piece only requires the $9 per month Netflix fee.
• Rock Band AC/DC released in Wal-Mart.  This came out early this week.  We aren’t rushing to get this, but will at some point. possibly when we see it on clearance.
• Not previously mentioned, but I built a Roland electronic drum kit this month to play Rock Band.  I still need to modify the kit to make it work with the game.  Not sure this will be complete in November.

For me, the instant pick ups are: Storm, Rock Band DLC, NXE and GNR album.  Going to be a busy month for the obsessions. What about your obsessions?  What would you add?

NXE Fanboy Time?

Ok, so normally I don’t gush over big companies looking out for the little guy, but today is an exception.  While I haven’t looked into every single new feature coming, one particular piece of the “New Xbox Experience” (NXE) has me extremely excited.

I have a 360.  I have Xbox Live.  I have NetFlix.  I love movies.

The NXE is going to actually bring all that together for me at no extra charge or change to my current setup.  Once released, the NXE will allow NetFlix subscribers to stream their ‘Play Now’ libraries directly to their Xbox as opposed to their PC.   This is huge for me.

Granted, it’s not all charity.  NetFlix is trying to keep up w/ constantly changing media consumption preferences and distinguish itself as a bigtime player for the consistently predicted but yet to arrive on demand/download movie revolution.  Microsoft wins in that they 1) further distinguish Xbox Live as the premier online service and 2) improve on an already huge selling point for MS gaming platforms now and in the future.

And just when I thought that was all, a nice little announcement came out detailing a deal between NetFlix and Starz to allow the streaming of Starz content to NetFlix subscribers.  Grande, as this is basically handing out a pay channel for free.

Is this a big deal to anyone else or am I alone on this little wagon ride?