Xbox Live Avatars Are Being Completely Revamped With Diversity In Mind
06/14/2017 09:57 pm EDT
When was the last time you tinkered with your Xbox Live Avatar? You know, the slightly dorky little 3D character that represents you online? It's probably been a while, as Microsoft hasn't done much with the system in a while, but it seems the company isn't ready to let Avatars go. On their Xbox Daily: Live @ E3 show, Microsoft announced Avatars 2.0, a major revamp for the aging feature.
The goal of Avatars 2.0 is to give players a far wider array of options, with a focus on diversity of all kinds. The updated system will allow for all sorts of body types, include wheelchairs and artificial limbs, and eliminate any gender barriers when it comes to clothing and accessories. Ideally, pretty much everybody will be able to make an accurate representation of themselves using Avatars 2.0.
But what if you're not particularly interested in reality? What if you want your Avatar to have robots arms, green skin, and ride a unicorn? Well, you can also do that. Diversity can be fun! You can check out a quick trailer for the Avatars 2.0 at the top of this post.
Here's what Xbox Bryan Saftler had to say about the new Avatar system:
"We built these from the ground-up, they're being built in Unity which is a whole new engine. Avatars are meant for whatever you want your digital self to represent. We don't want to put you in a box, there are no more checkboxes, no matter what you think you look like or what you want to present online."
This probably won't be a huge deal to most Xbox owners, but it's nice to see Microsoft putting the effort in. And yes, since this is 2017, there's a good chance this will spark of all sorts of unnecessary drama, but accurately representing users has always been the goal of Microsoft's Avatars. Now they actually will.
Avatars 2.0 arrives on Xbox One and Windows 10 this fall.
[via Gamespot]
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