Rare has told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio intends to "own" the avatar concept in new products for the Xbox 360, despite interest from third-party developers.
Mark Betteridge, studio manager for the Viva Piñata developer, believes there are multiple opportunities to utilise avatars in future game development, and last week's launch was only the beginning for the stylised characters on the system.
"There's a lot of interest in avatars by third parties, as you can imagine," said Betteridge.
With the release of the new Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace, users are able to but new clothing for their avatar. Although it is a good way to use up unused points, is Microsoft just trying to get us to spend even more money on virtual clothing?
Well yes but they are not forcing you to buy these things. They should have it free tho to be honest. Its also a nice option for suckers.
Xbox Live's Avatar Marketplace is now open for business. While for many gamers the new feature is all fine and good, for many others, it's proving to be the battle of the century.
The reason for this ongoing battle? The pricing of the Avatar Marketplace. Some things, like tees caps, and various other Avatar-decking apparel are available for the low price of 80 MS Points, which translates into $1.00 in US currency. Those are cool. The debates are being stemmed by a relative few items, which are proving to be a bit more expensive.
Before you say it, yes I wrote this article. So of course it makes sense to me. :D
I seriously think the Avatar Marketplace costs too much. Have a read & make your own choice!
the avatar marketplace is too much its way too much i mean i love the whole idea of marketplace but damn those prices
Every week, from now on, Loading Reality will bring you video, descriptions, and prices for all of the new Avatar items to hit the Marketplace. This is the initial launch of the NXE, and with it comes some new items for your avatar.
I thinks it's pretty cool how the Avatars work. Pretty funny seeing how all my friends design there own lil guys.
Avatars used in a Jet Force Gemini sequel/remake would be cool.
It bugs me that there arent enough retail wii games that use the mii characters. WTF is the point of me making it when I can't use it in a game? I know there are some but there should be more open use of these "likenesses" than there are.
MS can do what nintendo has not and open up using them in more casual games. I believe this will be done eventually but there are a load of existing live games that could benefit from an avatar patch. UNO is the first but there are more. With community games they should be allowed to use them as well.
Now the question is will Sony have home avatars that work outside of home? Casual games purchased in retail that can use your home avatar as the playable character....without being in home to play it.
... I think the main interest from developers consists of 'hey let's create a suit/costume/shirt/whatever for these avatars that showcase one of our icons, and charge 5 bucks for them!!!'
So pretty soon, we'll have 5 dollar Halo-suit avatars, or 'Conker T-shirts' for our Avatar to wear, or red 'Sonic the Hedgehog' shoes....
This could all go either way: easy cash-in, or the start of something really cool, when used in lots of stuff.
Isn't that Microsoft's decision to make...?