One of my least-favorite parts of Microsoft's otherwise very good Xbox Live online gaming service is its points-based purchasing system. Yes, there are no doubt reasons for it, but I wish I didn't need to make a conversion from Microsoft's fictional currency just to figure out how much I'm actually paying for Pac-Man Championship Edition.

The ability to avoid that pretense seems like the best reason to check out a new Xbox Live digital store launched on Amazon.com this morning. The store lets Amazon shoppers spend real-world money to buy downloadable Xbox Live games. The bad part is that it adds its own extra step to the process, providing a download code to enter later into the Xbox 360 interface.

The partnership between the two Seattle-area tech companies marks the first time Xbox Live games have been available for purchase outside Xbox Live or xbox.com, according to the news release announcing the launch of the store.

Video-game blog Kotaku cites rumors that Sony and Nintendo will soon be hooked up with Amazon stores of their own. Greg Hart, vice president of Video Games and Software for Amazon.com, seems to hint at that possibility in the news release, saying Amazon "will continue to drive innovation that will provide our customers with the widest selection of video game platform downloads.”

Amazon.com launched its own store for PC game downloads in February.

At first glance, the new arrangement doesn't seem likely to result in a huge spike in sales of Xbox Live games, because it's catering to Microsoft's existing audience. People will still need own an Xbox 360 (or buy one) to play the games. But maybe the extra exposure, and the ability to download games from a PC using an Amazon account, could boost sales in some incremental way.

Apart from game downloads, the Xbox Live store on Amazon also is selling Xbox Live subscriptions and (ugh) Microsoft Points cards.