Microsoft MSFT -0.82% first debuted its Rare-created Avatars on the Xbox 360 in 2008, but with the arrival of the Xbox One in 2013, the customizable characters didn’t make the transition to the new console generation. That may be about to change.
According to a pair of job postings on the Microsoft site (via Eurogamer), a few good people are being sought to help bring Avatars back to life on the One.
“As we cross the threshold to a unified operating system and product experience across Microsoft, it is time to for Xbox avatars to also advance to the next level,” one of the posts says. “Come with us, as we take Xbox avatars on their biggest adventure yet in new Xbox experiences.”
The new engineers will “ensure Avatars are not only gorgeous, but highly performant [sic] across a wide scale of devices.”
Performant Avatars! Sounds good to me.
With the Xbox One’s current Windows 8 tile theme, it’s hard to imagine an Avatar popping up and breaking the rigid, boxy format somehow, the way they used to greet you on Xbox 360. Rather, when logging in, we’re only met with a giant Gamerpic (mine is of some faceless, helmeted, non-Halo space marine). But it’s clear that when the pending release of Windows 10, an Xbox One dashboard update probably won’t be all that far behind, which could really change the whole dynamic of the interface. I desperately hope this to be true, as the One’s tiles are one of my least favorite things about the system, however petty the complaint may be. People underestimate the power of a good UI, and One/Windows 8 does not have one in the least.
As for the Avatars? I wouldn’t mind their return. I preferred the Rare-designed Xbox 360 Avatars to Nintendo's off-putting Miis, and the concept of recreating one’s self in virtual form will be a trend that certainly isn’t going anywhere any time soon. As a cash revenue source, I always thought it was rather lame to spend MS Points for new clothing items, as in retrospect the concept is pretty Black Mirror (Fifteen Million Merits, specifically), but I did kind of like when you’d unlock new clothing options for in-game achievements, as I could care less about adding more numbers to my Gamerscore. It was a tangible reward that you could see every time you logged in, and more compelling than a string of numbers.
All three members of the current brotherhood of consoles, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony , have used avatars in some form or another to date. Nintendo directly carried over its Miis from the Wii to the Wii U, and still inserts them in games like Smash Bros and Mario Kart regularly, allowing players to play as “themselves,” so to speak.
Sony’s avatars were relegated to the forever-strange PlayStation Home, a Second Life-ish shared space that was its own minigame of sorts within the PS3, and was ultimately shuttered last year. PS Home was a strange little experiment that had its funny moments, but had large pockets of creeps to the point where it made the whole thing rather unsettling. But most of the time, almost no one used it, which was why it was closed down eventually. I think PS Home was a not-terrible concept, and perhaps a bit ahead of its time, but players looking for a life simulator had far better options to choose from.
As for Microsoft’s Avatars, they showed up in a few games, a lot of them Kinect-based, but now that Microsoft has practically disowned the peripheral, I’m wondering how often they’ll appear in software once they return. Also, I’m curious to see if they’ll maintain the same style of cartoon-ishness first crafted by Rare, or if “gorgeous” Avatars “advancing to the next level” might mean a more realistic animation approach. I’d guess the former, and the original style of the Avatars was pretty neat, and it’s still hard to do realism terribly well, as we see even in the more advanced character creators in current games.
There’s no timetable on the return of Avatars on Xbox One, and Microsoft has no comment on the job postings. But between Windows 10, Cortana and now Avatars, there are likely going to be some serious changes coming to the Xbox One UI in 2015.
According to a pair of job postings on the Microsoft site (via Eurogamer), a few good people are being sought to help bring Avatars back to life on the One.
“As we cross the threshold to a unified operating system and product experience across Microsoft, it is time to for Xbox avatars to also advance to the next level,” one of the posts says. “Come with us, as we take Xbox avatars on their biggest adventure yet in new Xbox experiences.”
The new engineers will “ensure Avatars are not only gorgeous, but highly performant [sic] across a wide scale of devices.”
Performant Avatars! Sounds good to me.
With the Xbox One’s current Windows 8 tile theme, it’s hard to imagine an Avatar popping up and breaking the rigid, boxy format somehow, the way they used to greet you on Xbox 360. Rather, when logging in, we’re only met with a giant Gamerpic (mine is of some faceless, helmeted, non-Halo space marine). But it’s clear that when the pending release of Windows 10, an Xbox One dashboard update probably won’t be all that far behind, which could really change the whole dynamic of the interface. I desperately hope this to be true, as the One’s tiles are one of my least favorite things about the system, however petty the complaint may be. People underestimate the power of a good UI, and One/Windows 8 does not have one in the least.
As for the Avatars? I wouldn’t mind their return. I preferred the Rare-designed Xbox 360 Avatars to Nintendo's off-putting Miis, and the concept of recreating one’s self in virtual form will be a trend that certainly isn’t going anywhere any time soon. As a cash revenue source, I always thought it was rather lame to spend MS Points for new clothing items, as in retrospect the concept is pretty Black Mirror (Fifteen Million Merits, specifically), but I did kind of like when you’d unlock new clothing options for in-game achievements, as I could care less about adding more numbers to my Gamerscore. It was a tangible reward that you could see every time you logged in, and more compelling than a string of numbers.
All three members of the current brotherhood of consoles, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony , have used avatars in some form or another to date. Nintendo directly carried over its Miis from the Wii to the Wii U, and still inserts them in games like Smash Bros and Mario Kart regularly, allowing players to play as “themselves,” so to speak.
Sony’s avatars were relegated to the forever-strange PlayStation Home, a Second Life-ish shared space that was its own minigame of sorts within the PS3, and was ultimately shuttered last year. PS Home was a strange little experiment that had its funny moments, but had large pockets of creeps to the point where it made the whole thing rather unsettling. But most of the time, almost no one used it, which was why it was closed down eventually. I think PS Home was a not-terrible concept, and perhaps a bit ahead of its time, but players looking for a life simulator had far better options to choose from.
As for Microsoft’s Avatars, they showed up in a few games, a lot of them Kinect-based, but now that Microsoft has practically disowned the peripheral, I’m wondering how often they’ll appear in software once they return. Also, I’m curious to see if they’ll maintain the same style of cartoon-ishness first crafted by Rare, or if “gorgeous” Avatars “advancing to the next level” might mean a more realistic animation approach. I’d guess the former, and the original style of the Avatars was pretty neat, and it’s still hard to do realism terribly well, as we see even in the more advanced character creators in current games.
There’s no timetable on the return of Avatars on Xbox One, and Microsoft has no comment on the job postings. But between Windows 10, Cortana and now Avatars, there are likely going to be some serious changes coming to the Xbox One UI in 2015.
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