If you’ve ever had the unfortunate luck of having a vacation or business trip timed just after the launch of a game you’ve been anticipating feverishly, then this little piece of news is for you.

Yesterday at TechCrunch 50, an event where tech startups basically pitch themselves to a room of investors and potential customers’ partners, startup Spawn Labs unveiled the HD-720 – a set-top box that basically acts like a Slingbox for your game console.

If you’re unfamiliar with Slingbox, it’s a component you plug into your television as well as your home network which allows you to dial up your television via your laptop or PC from any interweb-connected place in the world.  With this latest hardware innovation from newly funded Spawn Labs, you can do the same with your favorite console systems.

The HD-720 allows gamers to play whichever disc rests in their console through their computer or laptop remotely.  The system works with XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as geezers like the original XBOX, GameCube, and PS2.  This box will display games on your laptop in hi-def 720p – unless you’re in a low-bandwidth area in which case the box will scale down the HD in order to retain a proper frame rate.

While this shouldn’t be lauded as some mobile console gaming messiah, it’s certainly a big step in a pretty cool direction.  Our major gripe here is inherent in the consoles themselves and not Spawn’s box, that being that only one disc can rest in the console’s drive.  This means the HD-720 user must choose one game disc to put in their console which can be played throughout the duration of the gamer’s trip or absence.  However, as some of the industry’s biggest publishers push digital distribution more and more, this issue could simply wash out with the tide.

For plenty more information on the HD-720 from Spawn Labs, check out the UStream video recording of the TechCrunch 50 unveiling:

Video and images courtesy of Spawn Labs and TechCrunch.

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