Xbox Live Avatars To Get Makeover

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The folks at Microsoft are going to be giving some very subtle changes to the (now famous) Xbox Live Avatars. They’re going to be made just a touch more realistic, taller and skinner with more life-like colors. As you can see below, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson led the charge and his new avatar doesn’t look bad at all.

According for gaming blog Joystiq, the reason behind the change is the upcoming motion-control game Kinect Sports. As you may know, Kinect Sports will place your avatar into the action. Dunno what was wrong with the older avatars, but according to Rare programmer Nick Burton, the new avatars are proportionally better to connect (no pun intended) with the Kinect players. The new Avatars were actually featured in the Kinect Sports screenshots released at E3, but it looks like nobody noticed the sleeker avatars.

Major Nelson and other Microsoft “VIPs” have had their avatars updated already. Like the recent Halo: Reach debacle (but with much less important consequences), the new Avatars are plainly viewable on the Xbox Live avatar website.

As many of our readers know, the Xbox 360 gets a console firmware update every fall and spring. With the Kinect coming in November, you’ve got to imagine that the Xbox folks will get the new “Avatar 2.0″ (as it’s being dubbed) update out before the game does.

(Image Credit: Joystiq)