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At a pre-show E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) press conference yesterday, Microsoft founder and Chairman Bill Gates introduced Live Anywhere, which intends to deliver the Xbox Live experience to the desktop and cell phones. With Xbox Live, gamers from all over the globe can play each other, chat, try and download new games, etc.

The most dramatic thing Microsoft could do to take Live to the next level is to expand it to the Windows PC and Windows Mobile world, according to Gates. Through Live Anywhere, Microsoft would like to connect Xbox Live users to the world's more than 150 million PC gamers and one billion videogame-ready cell phones; not just Windows Mobile, but Java and BREW-enabled handsets as well.

"Our vision is to deliver a consistent, compelling experience that makes it easy for consumers to jump in and play, from any device at any time," declared Gates.

Gates added, "Windows is a very important game platform." Because the number of people playing games on Windows "exceeds even the largest installed base of video games." And with "the capabilities of those phones to connect up to data, to have rich color screens, is just getting better and better. So they come in as a full participant."

The Live Anywhere service will be added to Microsoft's next-gen desktop OS, Windows Vista, which should finally ship in early 2007. Mobile users won't gain access to Live Anywhere until sometime next year as well, as it is still in the early stages of development.

At the E3 event, the Microsoft founder explained how Live Anywhere will play to the strengths of each platform. With Live Anywhere, Microsoft created "something that there are some very clear things that you can do that are user centric; letting you see your achievements, and use the Windows device for what its good for, the phone for what its good for, the Xbox for what its good for. And so this is a vision of taking live to a new level," according to Gates.

Microsoft released the original Xbox in 2001. It debuted the latest edition, a high-definition version, Xbox 360, last November. Gates said about 10 million Xbox 360 units have shipped since then. Rivals Sony and Nintendo have yet to release their next-generation consoles.