Microsoft reveals avatars for 360
Well, lots of people had been speculating that the 360 would come up with an avatar concept to rival the Miis and Playstation’s Home network, but today they were officially announced and shown off during the E3 press conference. The entire “Xbox Experience” has been revamped, changing the look of the dashboard in a hope to make it more streamlined and easier to navigate. It should hit this fall.
It sounds and looks real nice, but am I the only one who is shuddering at the thought of microtransactions for new clothes and hairstyles for your avatar? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
In addition to the avatars, many other XBL features were announced, including the exclusive Portal: Still Alive, a downloadable sequel to the hysterical hit from The Orange Box collection. They even brought GlaDOS in to do the reveal - nice touch!
MS has also joined with Netflix to allow users who have both subscriptions the opportunity to add their direct-download queue movies to their 360, and even watch them online with friends.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:05 am
The Mii is dead, long live the Mii
I wouldn’t worry about microtransactions unless you are the kind of person who MUST have those latest new shoes every season 
I am sure they won’t let you go naked, so you can just pick from the basic set of clothes and outfits and let people with too much disposable income and free time on their hands worry about keeping their Avatar in step with the latest fashions.
I thought the Netflix news was kind of huge, and the really big thing with Avatars is that you can actually do things online together with your friends - as opposed to just being able to chat and stare at their virtual representations. The concept of watching a movie together with your friends, in synchronicity, while still remaining on your independent couches seems kind of cool in particular. Sure, it removes one of the few remaining reasons to ever see each other in person, but hey, this is the virtual age after all
At least you only need to smell your own body odor and pizza breath from now on 