Lips + Zune = music game?

Kotaku, a video game blog, recently reported on an upcoming XBOX 360 karaoke game lips and possible integration with portable music players, Zune, iPod, ect. The info is scant, but it looks to provide an option for users to stream their music via their DAPs and play along with it in some fashion. From the blog post:

One of Lips‘ biggest value propositions is its ability to stream in music from MP3 players, external hard drives and Windows Media Center. When we saw the function at E3, it was still incomplete, with the promise of more information to come. According to Microsoft, your “digital rights management-free songs” will be supported by Lips, but that the title “won’t be launching day one with any lyrics support.” iNiS’s Keiichi Yano told us at E3 that the developer had a “creative solution” coming, so we hope that this feature hasn’t been dropped.

The interface for singing along with your off-soundtrack tunes will be slightly different from the core game. The Freestyle Mode will instead feature “virtual music videos” and a visualizer for melodic sing-along parts. Esaki told us that one of the more bizarre track selections he’s currently playing is the Star Wars “Imperial March” theme.

It sounds like Lips has room to grow, because Esaki told us that Microsoft views the game as “a platform for experiences around music.”

Should be interesting to see how this might pan out for Zuners who have always dreamed of Zune induced karaoke parties.

Link to blog post