Microsoft Announces Avatars for Xbox 360
Microsoft announced at E3 today that it will launch the rumored avatars in a significant update to the Xbox 360 interface this fall. The avatars, designed by Rare, will be customizable via thousands and thousands, of virtual goods available on the Xbox Live Marketplace, bringing the Xbox a new monetization model, and, like the Wii's Miis, integrated into a wide variety of games, a fact highlighted for many of its games announced today.
I think it's incredibly significant that now every game console--products targeted at mainstream, young users--are now using or developing avatar-based interfaces for their systems. These gamers, which counts for a lot more than just the nerds, are not only going to have the option to use avatars for their online identities, but will only be using avatars for their console gaming identities.
It's not a forced adoption of virtual worlds, but I think it will be hard to understate the importance of these avatars in mainstreaming the virtual worlds experience for the gamer generation.
"Your online identity started as a Gamertag - it then grew into a personalized Gamercard," explained Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten in a statement. "Now, it has evolved even further into avatars. You can express your style, check out new outfits and share this with the community. Avatars will also be integrated into Xbox LIVE Arcade games, LIVE Party, as well as retail games." [via Kotaku]
Pretty smart move for Microsoft to pull some of the social casual element of Nintendo Mii.
I'd love to see how they extend these avatars into actual 3D gameplay, like can be done on Wii Sports etc - wonder if Microsoft will open up this interface to third party developers?
Posted by: Simon Newstead | July 15, 2008 at 07:28 PM