Verizon, Comcast, & Microsoft In Talks To Get Television To Xbox 360

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Seems Microsoft’s taking another run at the digital television space, but this time, they won’t be going it alone. Current word is that Microsoft is in talks with both Comcast and Verizon to back up their efforts to get the Xbox 360 into the television game.

Microsoft’s deal with the two companies is geared toward getting digital cable content onto the popular gaming system, according to the current reports, and lines up nicely with the reports we were getting out of the E3 game show, showing off the integration of the Kinect system into less gaming-oriented pursuits like controlling movies and music. And even then, Microsoft was detailing some plans to get better involved with television, but only announcing them involving work with partners…partners just like Verizon and Comcast.

Microsoft reportedly planned to get cable providers in on the action because they weren’t interested in competing with cable over things like content, but rather wanted to augment cable’s offerings and service.

Microsoft hasn’t exactly made any secrets around ambitions to upgrade the Xbox 360 from a game console into a whole home entertainment solution, replacing a whole lot of standard home theater components (tops on the list the Blu-ray player, but expanding to include the cable box and the like from there) with itself, and giving you a much better value, not to mention boosting the likelihood that you’ll get an Xbox in the future instead of a lot of other components.

Admittedly, though, the Xbox 360 will likely not pull off the grand ambition of becoming the all in one utility home theater system of our dreams. The Xbox 720, or whatever it ends up being called, now that’s got a chance to pull it off, especially if they can get the kinks ironed out on the Xbox 360. Plus, of course, we’ll get the added utility of being able to try all this stuff out, which should make for some pretty nice times ahead in home theater.

So what do you guys think about all this? Will the Xbox end up becoming our all in one home theater solution? Or will we still need receivers and media players and the like to do the job? The comments section awaits, so head on down and tell us what you think!