Xbox 360 camera + Windows in the cloud = future push by Microsoft?

[Squilliam]

JaggedSac said:
Microsoft is definitely heading the services route in a big way. They just completed one of the biggest CDNs in the world for their services, aka Live, Virtual Earth, and their Cloud OS. If bandwidth can make a leap, M$ will be in a good position to deliver a compelling streaming service for gaming. They have the brand and the infrastructure already in place to allow them to capitalize on this avenue. No other gaming company is in a position to quickly deliver and dominate a service such as this. Maybe Blizzard or Valve, but even their infrastructures are minuscule compared to the network that M$ just rolled out.

As for the camera, I think it will definitely be used for more than gaming. But the scope of functionality that the 360 offers at this time doesn't give much other use besides gaming. You could start up the box and scroll through the NXE to a Netflix movie or something without even having to get out of your chair, but unless they offer a browser or some other functionality, the use of the peripheral will probably be limited to gaming. And I am not sure how I feel about playing a game without a controller, unless they plan on combining the two, and that might be a little weird.

Once M$ gets all of their disparate groups that develop services together into one cohesive whole, it will be hard to top. Also, I hope they offer a combined subscription for Zune and Xbox Live.

CDN? What does that mean? Has their server infrastructure increased substantially, if thats what you're saying?

Anyway the reason why I thought that a camera will be useful for doing OS work is considering the type of 3d depth camera they will likely deploy they could probably have the accuracy to type which has been the main draw back for trying to do computing with a TV based operating system. If the rumours are true they may even deploy it now and then integrate their service into some brands of TV, because there really seems to be a push towards integration and their service could probably leg up every other competitor simply by being called Windows.