What About XBOX?
Over the last several years, XBOX 360 has been one of Microsoft's most successful products. Currently, Microsoft is hard at work on the successor to XBOX 360: the XBOX 720. There are many rumors that XBOX 720 will run the Windows 8 operating system. Although there are a number of reasons why these rumors seem plausible, they are unconfirmed.
However, there is no denying that Microsoft is trying to create a relationship between Windows, Windows Phone, and XBOX. One of the most innovative features in Windows Phone 7 was XBOX Live support, which is shown in Figure 3. Users could create and modify their XBOX avatar, chat with friends, keep track of game scores, and play games (although not XBOX 360 games).
Figure 3 Windows Phone 7 featured XBOX Live.
XBOX Gaming also plays a rather prominent role in the consumer preview release of Windows 8. In fact, XBOX Live is integrated into the new operating system, as shown in Figure 4. The XBOX Live app that is found in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview release is almost identical to what is available on Windows Phone 7.
Figure 4 The Consumer Preview Release of Windows 8 includes an XBOX Live app.
The preview release also contains an XBOX Companion app. The XBOX Companion allows you to use your PC (or other Windows 8 device) to search for things like movies, music, and games, and then play them on your XBOX 360 console. There is also an XBOX Companion app available for Windows Phone 7 (http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/b057fbe2-ceb1-470f-a7fe-09c862ca6dd9)
Conclusion
Windows 8 is still in beta testing, and we will likely see a number of changes made to the operating system prior to its final release. Even so, it is abundantly clear that Microsoft is following a "better together" strategy, in which there will be a high degree of unification between Windows 8, Windows Phone, and XBOX.