Video game consoles and smartphones may seem like an unlikely pair intuitively, but take a step back and they’re both part of the same personal ecosystem: they’re information and entertainment devices that rule overlapping parts of our lives. Microsoft has recognized this and is working on further integrating the two with their most recent updates to the new Windows Phone 7.5.

At Nokia World, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President of Windows Phone, revealed a new app for the Windows Phone that pairs smartphones with the Xbox console and mind-melds the personal cloud with the living-room. The new app, Xbox Companion, will allow users to reveal information about movies that they’re playing on their Xbox console streamed from the Internet as well as select from possible entertainment sources,

Once the movie or TV show is loaded, controls are brought up, providing the option to skip through the video and pause from the comfort of their smartphone. The value of the service is really brought home when you see how it loads up data on the actors, providing the user with ways to gain an understanding of what the film is about and who is starring in it.

As a service, Xbox Companion can be added to and built out to include data from different movie studios, connecting to platforms created by third-parties within the Xbox platform, making searching for movie data and associated information a complete joy. It doesn’t just extend to films or TV shows either, it also see some impressive gaming features connect the Windows Phone platform with its console counterpart.

The big deal about this is that it means that a single household of Xbox users each could carry their own personal tastes with them on their Windows Phone and use that as a “remote personality” when paired with the Xbox. The natural evolution of this would be to receive updates for Internet-connected TV shows and movies from a give service during the day, update the phone with lists of possibilities; then, upon coming home again, the customer could then use her Windows Phone to choose-and-go.

The Windows Phone makes for an excellent sort of smart remote-control in this aspect. No more fumbling for the Xbox controller when you just want to watch a movie—it also doubles as a mechanism for up-close reading on details about the upcoming media. This would probably integrate extremely well with Microsoft’s push to make Xbox the dominant living-room set-to-box and Internet-connected media device.

The software giant has been telegraphing this strategy for quite some time, but this is the first move that sets them solidly on the course.

Another app that Belfiore revealed at the conference connects the Windows Phone with the Xbox game Kinectimals. (We’ve seen this already with the Kinect enabled Build-a-bear.) Already, smartphone users can download a Kinectimals app to their smartphone and interact with their cute-cuddly virtual animal from the phone; but with Xbox Connect on their phone they will be able to add an animal to their game (and the Xbox console) via scanning a QR code from the phone. The pairing then automatically syncs the Xbox.

It’s not a big breakthrough, but it’s just another glimpse into what smartphone-console paring will be able to do for users: the smartphone becomes the mobile window that carries the personal cloud for the customer into the living room.

Microsoft looks like they’re well on the road to making this happen.