A new report suggests that Microsoft will be "consolidating all their communications technology" in the near future, meaning that Skype will take over from Xbox LIVE Chat and MSN Messenger to become the default communication service on the next-gen Xbox console, alongside PCs and tablets.
According to CVG, who spoke with a "person familiar with the matter", this means that we might well "jump to the conclusion that we'll see asynchronous voice and video messages in next-gen Xbox Live".
Moreover, an MS job advertisement from last year looking for a user interface designer for the "next gen Xbox", hinted that the job location was said to be at Microsoft's UK-based Skype offices. "The team you'll join is responsible for Skype in the living room (broadly the home), across various devices but with a focus on the large screen and the next generation of Xbox," read the blurb.
Microsoft bought Skype for a rather hefty $8.5 billion back in 2011 - the largest acquisition in the company's forty-year history - and the comms service is now headed up by former Skype chief exec, Tony Bates, as a Skype division within Microsoft.
