Microsoft "has a strategy to take over the world"

Xbox 720 will be more than just a games console – Microsoft wants it to replace all of the boxes currently sitting under your television.

That’s the prediction of Michael Pachter who yesterday told an audience at the Develop Conference that Microsoft has a strategy to take over the world”, according to IncGamers.

I think Microsoft’s got it right [with their console strategy], and I think Sony will keep plugging away because they have an integrated strategy across all of their consumer electronic products.

Console will have to be multiple purpose devices, though. The Xbox 720, this is my prediction, is going to be your television as well [as your game console]. You’ll be able to tune into television through it.

You wont need a ‘smart TV’ when you’ve got an Xbox 720, it will be your television and your internet. It’s going to be open architecture and I think its real trick will be that one Xbox will be able to display television to as many screens as you have in your possession.

The next Xbox will be Windows for sure, and you’ll be able to open up multiple TV channels in different windows and you’ll use SmartGlass to shoot off different channels to how ever many screens you want. That is happening, that I’m certain of.”

Pachter also believes that Microsoft will embrace its subscription supported sales model, meaning the console itself will be relatively cheap in upfront terms.

I’m pretty confident that in the US Microsoft is going to partner with a cable TV provider, so I expect that the console will be priced like a smart phone,” he added. I expect you’ll be paying $99 for the console with a cable TV subscription.”

How smoothly such a plan could be implemented in Europe – where the TV market is incredibly fractured – remains to be seen.