Xbox 360 Sells 10.4m, Gets TV

Robbie Bach and Bill Gates sing the praises of the Xbox 360 and introduce its media future.

For the 11th year in succession, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates booted to life the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, heralding the dawning of the "Digital Decade" in his keynote address. Games and the Xbox 360 were on Gates' mind for much of the talk.

Bill Gates

The 14-month-old console sold 10.4 million units by the end of 2006, Xbox boss Robbie Bach said at the talk. This is slightly higher than the 10 million Microsoft had predicted.

Bach was touting Xbox Live too, which has now reached a subscriber base of 5 million users. Together they have played 3 billion hours of games on the service. How many of those people are paying for Xbox Live Gold is something the company is keeping to itself for now.

Robbie Bach

But it wasn't just about numbers. The future of the console was writ large at CES. The Xbox 360, Gates said, is a PC, and as if to prove the point, he and Bach revealed a new IPTV service for the Xbox 360 that allows people to watch live TV streamed over the internet through their Xbox 360s.

"Our goal is to make entertainment more personal, more interactive and more social," Bach said at the unveiling. "IPTV on Xbox 360 and Xbox Live are powerful examples of ways we are bringing together the worlds of gaming, TV viewing and community to make it easy for people to access and discover their favourite content and share their personal experiences with the communities they are part of."

IPTV for Xbox 360 is due by the end of the year, and it adds to the high-definition TV and movie downloads American Xbox 360 owners have been offered since November. Unlike that service, IPTV looks to be going global soon, with trials underway in 14 countries on four continents.

Storing all that HD content is going to take a lot more hard drive space than the Xbox 360 currently has. Rumours flared up again this week that Microsoft is working on a new version of the Xbox 360, codenamed Zephyr. Zephyr, according to Engadget, will come with a 120 GB hard drive and an integrated HDMI output - just the thing for true HD. Microsoft refused to comment on the veracity of the rumours.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo