The steady march towards convergence continues, with the announcement that MSN Instant Messenger buddies will soon be integrated with the Xbox Live Friends List, thus allowing people to chat with their non-gamer mates from the comfort of their own sofas from May this year.

From the release:

"Bringing the largest IM community in the world, Windows Live Messenger, to Xbox 360 makes sense, as Xbox LIVE has really become the largest social network on television," said Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox LIVE at Microsoft. "For our growing community of 6 million on Xbox LIVE, using Xbox 360 is a very social, connected experience. They are using Xbox 360 to play games, music and movies while simultaneously communicating with one another through video, voice and text chat. With this announcement we are simultaneously expanding the access of Xbox LIVE users to existing friends and family while introducing Windows Live Messenger users to the benefits of Xbox 360."

The skates are on at the big companies to create the MySpace of home consoles, as they chase the enigmatic non-gamers down on their chosen interactive platforms, tempting them into the fold through subtle non-gaming networking opportunities. But who will crack it? Microsoft with their existing powerhouse of social applications (like Instant Messenger and Windows-enabled mobile phones) or Sony, with their library of technologies (including mobile phones) and forward-thinking software (like Little Big Planet)?

But wait a second, what about the games?