Microsoft+Skype=?

[clint g]

I'm surprised this hasn't gotten a mention yet

http://xbox360.gamespy.com/articles/116/1167072p1.html

Popular online voice and video service Skype is now a Microsoft product. The maker of Windows announced the surprising $8.5 billion acquisition this morning, promising Skype is on the way for the Xbox 360 and Kinect.

While I see this bringing alot to the 360, I'm worried that Microsoft won't treat the PC side of this properly.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, this makes me nervous. I'm a Skypeout user and I'd hate to see what MS does with it. I hope they treat development separately instead of integrating it everywhere, but I've heard they want to integrated it into email and Office products. I don't want it to become a bulky useless product, which is what I fear it will become.

 

[DBR]

If I could unfold myself onto my couch and connect through Skype using a Kinect, I would probably buy one just to do that.

 

[Turbo]

Before Microsoft launched Office Web Apps, I would have been worried that they would have started charging for Skype, but now I could see them using Skype's infrastructure to greatly improve Xbox Live as well as integrate its features into other Microsoft products. PowerPoint and Excel with built-in Skype support would be quite powerful (and useful) for video-conferencing, for one.