IPTV and the 360 a "fair bet"; Microsoft's plan for global domination

by Christopher Grant { Jan 3rd 2006 at 1:00AM }

Although some at Microsoft insist "It's not about owning the living room" others lay bare underlying strategies behind Microsoft's frenzied attempt to enter the video game console market. XChange magazine has conducted a lengthy interview with Microsoft TV's Ed Graczyk; while most of it deals directly with IPTV, they do ask him about the role of the 360 in their strategy. He says, "The initial iteration of [the Xbox 360] is focused on gaming... but it’s a fair bet at some point in the future you’ll have an Xbox console that could be also an IPTV receiver – that will have the IPTV functionality built into it."

Microsoft's ambitions in the living room are storied, and this interview shows their strategy and the resources they're willing to invest in satisfying it. While the Xbox 360 might be a killer game machine, do some at Microsoft still see it as their trojan horse, a set-top box waiting to deliver goods and services through a Microsoft-controlled gateway? (And we're not talking about Live here.)

[Thanks, Farooq J Alvi]

Tags: IPTV

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Scott @ Jan 3rd 2006 11:12AM

They better start selling larger hard drives if they want that to happen. That 20GB HDD just isn't going to cut it in the long run.

Reality Check @ Jan 3rd 2006 12:30PM

It would be awesome if you could download full movies in 720p to the 360. Given hard disk space considerations, one could probably only store one movie at a time right now...but still, it'd be cool. It may take about 9-12 GB for a movie...so the download would take a couple hours. But it'd be a cool way to get your HD movie fix without next generation DVD available.

Hopefully they'll bring out a 300 or 500 GB drive.