Right after announcing the last days of Windows Live Messenger, news has surfaced about Microsoft’s broader plans for the Skype platform. It looks like the company is taking their $8.5 billion investment seriously, and wants to “consolidate all their communications technology” around Skype.

We already know Skype is deeply integrated with Windows 8, particularly tablets. It just replaced Windows Live Messenger. And now Skype is going to be the default voice chat service for Xbox Live service on the next-generation Xbox. Sources also say that you might see “asynchronous voice and video messages in next-gen Xbox Live”, meaning video vis-a-vis Skype may be coming to Xbox Live.

The acquisition of Skype in 2011 was the biggest in the company’s 40-year history, so it’s not too surprising that they’ve got ambitious plans for it, with its very own Skype division within Microsoft headed by Skype’s former chief executive Tony Bates at the helm. Does this mean we’re going to start seeing Skype preinstalled on everything Microsoft? Only time will tell, but there’s a pretty good chance.

[via CVG]