Today is a big day for the gaming industry. Microsoft will be announcing its new Xbox console and we are expecting it to be quite the beast. The gaming console is all but guaranteed to sell by the millions, and at GTV Source we are both excited and worried. Excited because it should be an awesome console that many of us will buy, but we fear that it could be the very first dangerous competitor to Google TV.

Google TV has been struggling to get on its feet and is finally making some real progress. We have more manufacturers jumping in and Google is hard at work with software improvements. The platform still has a lot of growing to do, though. And recent rumors of Xbox bringing Google TV-like functionality are worrisome.

According to the rumors, Xbox is set to jump into the smart TV business with the new console. Anonymous sources state that it will work by taking your cable box’s signal and sending it to your TV with Microsoft’s UI on top. Sounds familiar, right? It’s exactly what Google TV does, and without a solid base of apps Google TV could have a hard time competing.

Think about it this way – millions will already be buying the new Xbox, wither it has smart TV functionality or not. If Xbox manages to bring a great smart TV experience, though, do you think users will go out of their way to get a separate Google TV device? We will have to see, but for now let’s stay tuned and watch the announcement, which will start in less than an hour.

Watch Xbox announcement here

If you can’t watch the announcement with us, you can always stay tuned for our coverage.