Microsoft may be looking to rock the world of Internet-based live TV subscription services this week at the E3 conference.
A lot of attention has centered upon E3 this year, given that major press conferences from Ubisoft, Microsoft and Electronic arts are on tap for the coming days. Although rumors have persisted for weeks that Microsoft will unveil a next-generation video gaming console, most industry analysts believe a new service on the current Xbox system is most likely.
Last week, Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of corporate communications, released an interesting post on the company blog, saying that Microsoft’s immediate home-entertainment strategy focuses on expanding the offerings of the Xbox. “Xbox is the gateway to games, music, movies and TV shows – in short, it is central to entertainment,” Shaw wrote. “Next Monday at E3 in Los Angeles, the Xbox home entertainment pot will be boiling over during a 90-minute event,” adding that the “company is turning up the heat on a whole new era of home entertainment.”
According to Winrumors, E3 will be all about the Xbox LIVE subscription TV service for Microsoft. “The company is on lockdown for its big announcement and some demos and details might be held back if agreements are not in place in time.”
If sources-in-the-know are correct, the new service will be dubbed Xbox LIVE Diamond, and it will fuse Microsoft’s “mediaroom IPTV services” with Xbox LIVE. “Microsoft is likely to demo deeper integration of its Avatar Kinect service and the company’s new music and video services” the report offered.
