The keynote speech for CES was once again done by Bill Gates, who provided some very interesting information with regards to the 360 this year. Everyone was waiting for him to confirm Version 2 of the 360, with HDMI ports and a 120GB Hard Drive. That never materialised, but he did confirm the rumours about IPTV: it’s coming.

The IPTV service is being tested around the globe. Trials have already commenced with 16 companies, “including five of the world’s largest service providers in 14 countries on four continents”. This means that unlike the Movie Marketplace, Europe will be seeing this service as well. What do you get in the service? Well, there’s a whole host of different things you can do. Microsoft promise “instant channel zapping, a rich and responsive user interface, video on demand with branded video-on-demand storefronts, digital video recording and high-definition television”.

What does that mean for gamers? Well, you could be happily sitting down watching your favourite soap, only to be offered an invite for a game on the new Gears of War maps. Accepting, the 360 switches you over so you can play the game, and you can record what you watching so you don’t miss anything as you play. Or you could be watching your favourite soap, and be chatting about it with someone miles away through the headset. It’s a very clever service, and one that I’m sure many people will utilise once it is available. Chances are, it will be subscription based, but if you already pay for satellite television, you know what to expect.

Companies already included in the trials are the BT Group in the UK, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, T-Online in France, Swisscom in Switzerland, and AT&T in the US, acording to Eurogamer. Further proving this service is Europe bound then. We have been promised that the service will be seen this year, “Holiday 2007″. Expect it around November/December time then.

There was more interesting news. Gears of War has now sold 2.7 million copies. That’s quite a few in anyone’s book. 10.4 million 360s have also been sold in 37 different countries. That’s sold, not shipped. There are now 5 million Xbox Live users as well, meaning half of all 360s sold are hooked up to Live. That’s a damn good ratio. Microsoft also felt it appropriate to point out they are the leaders in the market of this new generation, in case anyone had forgotten.

2.7 million people have played as Marcus

There was also talk of Live on PCs, and how that will link up with Live on the 360. During the speech, UNO was demonstrated being played on a Vista laptop. Demonstrated by a woman called Lisa, she continued to demonstrate that Live works in almost the same way as it does for the 360. She was able to bring up a fully functioning friends list. It showed what they were playing, just as you would expect.

There were other games on display as well such as Geometry Wars that offers compatibility over both systems. It’s likely though that the only thing on offer there is a simple Leaderboard integration, but nonetheless it’ll be good to see PC gamers challenging console gamers in a way other than debating about what gives more precision.

That was about it on the gaming front. There was no mention of the rumoured new 360 that is meant to be coming with a new 120GB Hard Drive and HDMI connectivity, but MS have until the 11th before CES finishes, so there is time yet. And if the leaked information is true, there will be more news on this.

If you want to read what was talked about over the whole hour and a half, then Engadget have a nice post that was written as it happened. It’s short, but easy to understand what everyone is talking about! Major Nelson has the audio. Engadget also has a nice little gallery showing you some stills from the presentation.

Thanks to Danl for all the links provided, they were much appreciated.