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A new Microsoft survey going around suggests that Microsoft is going to be making their Avatars service a bit more fun and interesting soon. Since the New Xbox Experience launched, Avatars have still remained simple scenery other than in a few games which actually allowed use of Avatars – Scene It? Box Office Smash, Uno, etc.
The new survey asks questions such as if you would like to earn gear for your Avatar just like you would earn achievements, or if you’d like a “virtual” social setting for your Avatars to roam around in (such as PlayStation Home), or if you’d like more games that will let you play as your Avatar.
The survey’s pretty interesting, and it’s good to see Microsoft planning on evolving the service some more. Take a look at the survey below.
Microsoft Surveys NXE Avatar Changes, Including Wearable Achievements [Kotaku]
This seems a bit odd coming from Microsoft since they always seem to be on the pulse of the gaming community and don’t need traditional surveys to get direction.
Sony needs survey because, right now, the PS3 lacks synergy. The good and bad for Sony is that there’s so much stuff in the PS3 that it’s hard to manage and there are too many components with different leaders who probably all have a different vision for the console.
But back to MS: If they do come up with a Home-like interface they could outdo Sony primarily due to the relationships they’ve earned in the industry and basically becoming the lead platform in the same way the PS2 was the lead platform in its hey-day. Then again, Sony has been working pretty hard to get Home going and has been doing an okay job but I’m sure MS can see the holes in Home and could be successful if they start it up.
I’ll say one thing, I bet MS will find a way to allow you to travel from room to room and space to space without any lag or the need to download anything. My guess is that MS will also attempt to make it part of the dashboard so there’s nothing to launch to get started. If they can manage to do that and offer the same sort of senseless roaming, mindless mini-games and social interaction then Sony’s 4+ years of working on this will be wasted and they’ll have no clear advantage going into the next round of console wars.
For Sony’s sake I hope they’re working on making Home better rather than sitting on their hands or feeling good about themselves because they don’t have any competition in this area. And a more powerful PS4 won’t do the trick. Since Nintendo has proved that graphics don’t sell systems and MS has made the avatars less detailed than Sony’s Home avatars so graphics may not be the winner next generation.