Reports: U-verse getting Xbox, won't replace STBs

More highlights from the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week: Video game publication Kotaku and other sites reported that following enhancements to Microsoft Mediaroom to improve on its interfaces to multiple devices, AT&T will offer Microsoft's Xbox 360 U-verse IPTV device later this year. AT&T, of course, has long been a Microsoft Mediaroom customer.

Meanwhile, Kotaku followed up its initial report with another focusing on the role that the gaming platform could play in a U-verse TV household--and it might not be as a primary set-top box. Kotaku said Microsoft is positioning the Xbox 360 has a "node" in the IPTV home that would communicate with and in some ways rely on an existing STB for some functions.

Those functions might include DVR storage and writing features, since the gaming platform is unlikely to always be turned on. The Xbox also potentially could be used as a streaming device on a second or third (or fourth, fifth or sixth for many of you) TV in the home.

For more:
- Here's the Kotaku follow-up

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