Microsoft's $1 Billion Bet on Xbox Network "While Sony and Nintendo have online plans, networked game playing is peripheral to their video-game strategies. For Microsoft, it has been integral to the Xbox plan from the beginning — the wedge with which Microsoft hopes to gain entry to the nation's and world's living rooms and become an entertainment powerhouse. ... "You're looking at a service that will become a new phone network overnight," said Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering, a research and consulting firm in Seaford, N.Y. "By Christmas, Microsoft could become the nation's fourth-largest phone company." via Dave Winer