Xbox co-creator Kevin Bachus joins endangered social network Bebo, but why?

Kevin Bachus, the co-creator of the original Xbox, has joined Criterion Capital Partners' (CCP) recent acquisition from AOL, Bebo. The suffering social network was bought from Aol for a measly $10 million in June. Considering AOL bought the company back in 2008 for a hefty $850 million, Bebo isn't looking so hot right now after a $840 million loss.

In an effort to increase Bebo's gaming potential, CCP has brought in Bachus as Bebo's Chief Product Officer, something he has similar experience with while on Microsoft's DirectX team before spearheading the Xbox project. If his experience with one of the most successful gaming consoles and brands of all time is any indication, he'll definitely be working on something related to games with Bebo.

According to Bachus, this is a "dream opportunity" to experiment with a large user base, which Bebo claims is in the range of 117 million with half of that number logging in within the past year. You'd think the guy behind the machine that's eaten up millions upon millions of hours of gamers' time would be elsewhere, but he thinks the website has a lot going for it. Bachus will have the help of recent CEO Adam Levine (also managing director of CCP) to breathe new life into the fledgling website.

The two could soon go blue in the face with what Bebo needs in order to become the next social network power player, which Bachus believes there is room for in the market, according to a recent interview. Failing networks like MySpace have been attacking their woes with the same strategy of more multimedia and gaming with little results, so it'll be interesting to see how Bebo handles the same approach.

So, what could this mean for social games on the platform? Could Bebo, with the help of CPO Bachus and Levine, become a potential competitor for Facebook as the premiere social network for gaming? Is CCP in over its head? Let us know what you think in the comments.

[Via Mashable]