E-tailer Amazon has launched, of all things, a new Xbox Live store. The decision to do so has left more than one of us around here scratching our heads, but the potential benefits that are unique to Amazon’s offering could help drive an influx of sales from new revenue streams that were untapped prior to the Amazon offering.

Amazon’s Xbox Live store is unique in the fact that it makes it easy for someone to buy an Xbox Live Arcade title, for instance, to give it as a gift. In the past it was difficult to give someone an Xbox Live Arcade title as a gift because the title had to be purchased on the Xbox 360 console and downloaded by the same Xbox Live user for whom the content was to be assigned.

With the Amazon solution, content as well as Microsoft points and Subscriptions can be purchased and given as gifts to an Xbox owner. The content, Microsoft points or subscriptions are delivered to the recipient as redeemable code that the recipient can enter into their Xbox to retrieve their gift.

Of course, the Xbox Live store will also offer the typical Amazon customer feedback and reviews that are popular on Amazon. We can see this becoming popular with parents and girlfriends, for example, that want to buy or give Xbox Live content, Microsoft points and subscriptions as gifts. For those that are non-gamers this could be the ticket and it opens up a new revenue stream that previously didn’t exist for Microsoft.