Imagine being able to play your favourite console games at home -- from virtually any Internet-computer in the world?

This is the idea behind Spawn Labs' Spawn HD-720 appliance, officially announced at the recent TechCrunch50 technology conference.

The Austin-based Spawn Labs says their "anywhere, anytime" platform lets gamers play console games remotely as if they were in front of their TV at home. This might be déjà vu for TV fans who use a Slingbox, but now it's "place-shifting" your console games instead of television programming.

Great idea -- if it works.

About the size of a chunky DVD player, the Spawn HD-720 unit is said to work with Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Gamecube games. The Nintendo Wii is likely omitted because players must control the action using the motion-sensing, Bluetooth-based Wii Remote, which communicates with the sensor bar below or above the television.

The Spawn HD-720 also supports multiplayer matches, therefore you can be away traveling yet still play with your friends or siblings back at home -- or if they're elsewhere on a broadband-connected computer, too.

Spawn Labs says there's another application for this product: If someone is occupying the television you want to play on, you can simply go to another room in the home and play on a computer via your wireless network.

Additional features include the ability to invite remote friends to watch live, real-time gameplay, plus this device also lets players capture videos of favourite games and share them with others online.

The Spawn HD-720 is due out in November for US $199, but the company is taking preorders now.