Microsoft Xbox 720 to feature in-game Skype integration

Job postings on Microsoft's careers site indicate that the company is working on bringing Skype to the Xbox platform.

One particular job posting at Microsoft this week hints at the future of Skype's integration into the Xbox. Microsoft says it is "focused on enabling amazing new in-game and in-console voice and video experiences for the next generation of Xbox," indicating that the type of Skype functionality on the company's next Xbox hardware could go deeper than a separated app. It's not clear from the job posting whether existing Xbox 360 consoles will receive this type of Skype integration as the listing notes "it is time-critical given the hardware lead times involved."

Since buying Skype for $8.5 billion last year, Microsoft has expressed plans to integrate Skype into Windows Phone and its other services, and just this week we saw job listings for development of a Skype web app. Of course, the Xbox 360 has its own options for video chat via Kinect or the Live Vision camera, but Skype integration would certainly be welcome — the PSP comes with a Skype client built into its OS as standard, so it wouldn't exactly be unprecedented, either.

The first Xbox 720 (Durango) devkits have already reached a select number of developers and are rumored to feature a "monster" 16-core IBM PowerPC CPU, a GPU comparable to the AMD Radeon HD 7000-series, and a Blu-ray drive.

mmmm.. tasty!

News-Source: http://www.theverge.com
360-HQ Forums: Xbox 720 Devkit Specs Detailed – 16-Core PowerPC CPU