With Microsoft's Xbox on the horizon and more announcements about it expected at this week's E3 conference , the industry is taking sides in the struggle to squash Microsoft's plans to be the "next big thing" in the expected multifunction set-top box invasion. Sony has just picked a valuable ally in AOL Time Warner, according to a story today in the New York Times . As mentioned in another story today, Sony is pushing hard to have its interactive digital cable platform accepted by the masses. At the same time, the company is hedging its bets with this new alliance and a bunch of peripherals for the Play Station 2, including an add-on hard disk, network connection, mouse, and LCD display. AOL is developing a Netscape browser for the PlayStation 2 as well as features like electronic mail and Instant Messenger chat features. Sony provides the hardware and AOL Time Warner provides the installed base and the content. Not a bad one-two punch in the forthcoming war to keep Microsoft out of your living room.