Coming soon, a choice, your XBOX or your cable box

The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii might not be the best of friends, but together, the trio own the living room when it comes to gaming. The question is, for how long? Devices like Ouya, a $99 Android console, threaten to whittle away at the big three's userbase, though perhaps the biggest threat will come from cable companies. AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable are all reportedly getting ready to roll out cloud-based gaming service.

According to Bloomberg, all three are on pace to test gaming services later this year, with widespread deployment to follow in early 2013. That could pose a problem for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, all three of which haven't had to worry too much about streaming competition up to this point.  Will they actually give competition for the hard-core gamer or will they get the casual gamer?

The more likely scenario is that cable companies will have some success in dishing up casual games, like Angry Birds and the like, but they're unlikely to pose a serious threat to hardcore -- or even medium-core -- gaming. The other challenge for cable companies is dealing with data caps, though they could get around that restriction by allowing subscribers to play streaming games without it counting against their monthly quota.