Microsoft working on Mii-style avatars News
Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 Wii News by Robert Purchese
Microsoft appears to be busy creating its own avatar system for Xbox Live, modelled on that popular Mii idea by Nintendo.
However, Microsoft plans to "provide a more lifelike, animated, and fully customisable persona", according to top secret Intellisponse research papers read by Xbox 360 Fanboy, and also aims to make it available by the end of the year.
Looking a bit more closely, it seems these avatars will replace your Gamerpicture and will also be worked into "various arcade and retail games" in a similar way that Miis appeared in Wii Sports.
We're told there are "hundreds of clothing options", and an accompanying picture shows samurai outfits, bunny costumes, and boxing attire, as well as suits, shades and all the rest of it.
The characters themselves are male and female, just like in real-life, and all vary in height and face.
One interesting avenue is the possibility for licensed attire, suggested by one of the pictured avatars decked out in an Incredibles suit.
Rumours from earlier this year put Rare as the creative force behind these avatars.
Do you want a little you on Xbox Live, Eurogamer reader?
Want to comment on this article? Log in, or register!
Comments: 1-35 of 35 in total
|
seasidebaz
16/06/08 @ 08:27
0
Bit late to the party aren't we Microsoft?
Mind you, this will probably come out before Home, which would make Sony the last... |
|
the_dudefather
16/06/08 @ 08:28
0
whats next? motion controllers?
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 16/06/08 @ 09:29
|
|
DanWhitehead
16/06/08 @ 08:33
0
"whats the betting they will sell clothes etc for these?"
I'd imagine that's the whole point, from a business perspective. |
|
DanWhitehead
16/06/08 @ 08:41
0
I'm only interested if you can use Spore Creature Creator to make your avatar.
|
|
RobertFoster
16/06/08 @ 08:44
0
From my point of view, the current gamerpics are better than Miis. It's easier, rather than faffing about with height/clothes/face etc., you just pick a picture you like and forget about it.
Home isn't interesting either. |
|
kingdumpalot
16/06/08 @ 08:53
0
From the article, I would guess the Xbox 36miis would be more similar to Sony's Home avatars than the nintendo Miis.
|
|
0
Having a cusomisable 3D avatar is nothing new and certainly wasn't thought up by Ninty... so I don't understand all the bitching along those lines in this thread.
At any rate, I'm sure the gamerpics will remain since they are already used in a ton of existing games, and I really don't see MS going and getting devs to update every game that already uses gamerpics. So this will have to be an additional feature. My bet is it will only be available to Gold members too... |
|
0
I thought Miis were ok but a bit harmless and fun for five minutes. More recent games have started using them quite well though and if you have a lot of friends with recognisable Miis it can be really good. For example in Wii Fit on the run I was overtaken by a friends Jack Black Mii & I get cheered on in Mario Kart by friends. Yeah it's a simple little thing but it adds nicely to the overall experience.
|
|
The Bodybuilder
16/06/08 @ 09:25
0
What's the point? It's not like MSs inept marketing department will actually advertise this feature anyways. They'll just spend thier remaining budget on Gears 2, like they did with halo 3 and didn't do with mass effect/ninja gaiden.
|
|
0
@InsoFox
Yeah, I'd go for NIT-NER! If PS3 owners are getting Home, and Wii owners have Miis, I can't see MS giving customers a worse deal by forcing people to get Gold if they want one. They've already stuck a delay on demos, making it so you'd have to pay for something free on competitors machines would be madness. |
|
RazorObsession
16/06/08 @ 10:51
0
its a bullet point for the back of a box at best. customizable Mii's are hardly going to get bums on seats are they?
one less thing my vision camera will be used for too. |
|
SeesThroughAll
16/06/08 @ 12:30
0
And MS should sue Linus because he made an OS.
MS didn't invent OS... And... don't go there anyway ;) |
|
YourMessageHere
17/06/08 @ 16:17
0
Oh god no. There I was thinking they might actually look like people in a vaguely photorealistic way. Just as rubbish as the Mii concept. The hell with Spore, I want an avatar that I can use in a game that actually looks like me, not some super deformed chibi caricature transparently designed for low system requirements. License the APB character creator and we'll talk.
|
Comments: 1-35 of 35 in total
Want to comment on this article? Log in, or register!
