A year after Microsoft first said it would integrate its IPTV platform and its Xbox 360 Live game system, the first of the software giant's customers -- BT -- has announced it will sell the game consoles, which double as IPTV set-tops boxes.

This is only the most obvious way in which gaming is becoming a key part of the IPTV sale. Verizon is including games in its FiOS roadmap, as is AT&T, and IPTV middleware makers are seeing gaming as a platform differentiator. In Asia, IPTV is just one more way consumers can get their karaoke fix, and other, more social games, are emerging their as well over fat broadband pipes.

Once considered the domain of boys and young men, gaming is becoming multi-generational and crossing economic lines as well. And gaming represents a distinct advantage for IPTV over cable and satellite offerings, which don't have that interactivity.

So expect to see 2008 as a year when the games begin in earnest. What will be interesting to see is if this capability delivers a bigger chunk of subscribers, who might not otherwise have jumped to IPTV.

E-mail me at cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.