Chandler
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Whatever you thought of Microsoft's Avatars when they were announced at E3 (or, perhaps more accurately, when they were first leaked in June), one thing was immediately clear: There's a lot of potential for microtransactions in the feature. And now in an interview with VentureBeat (via CVG), Microsoft corporate vice president John Schappert confirmed that paid-for accessories may be a possibility down the line.<o></o>
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"That may be in the future," Schappert said when asked about the prospect. "In the near term, we want to launch these with great customization and a great library of accessories this fall. I think there is a lot more we can do with them. You will see us continue to add experiences that make use of the avatar."<o></o>
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Speaking more broadly about the new feature, Schappert explained where the impetus to create the Avatars came from. "To me, avatars are a logical extension to give us countless ways to personalize our own styles," he said, invoking long-ago promises of the so-called Remix Generation. "It's not like we are using avatars to recreate the perfect human body. And it's not too cutesy. It's in the middle. It dresses up the core first-person shooter, who can be edgy. And the more casual player can dress up to look friendly."<o></o>
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And what about unavoidable comparisons to Nintendo's Miis? "I have to make a shout out to the Miis and say that Nintendo did a phenomenal job integrating them into the Wii games," Schappert said. "There was a lot of inspiration from them. At the same time, it's a logical evolution of our gamertags on Xbox Live. It was a question of when to introduce it." It's nice to see Schappert acknowledge the obvious Mii inspiration, although there's just something a little odd about a corporate vice president giving a competitor a "shout out" for inspiring one of their new features, isn't there?<o>
</o> But hey, you have to give Microsoft this much -- the idea of actually adding customization options to their Avatars is something Nintendo has inexplicably never committed to for Miis. Now let's just hope those additions don't come saddled with unreasonable Microsoft Point price tags.
Credits: SYN Chandler XL, 1UP
