Expanding on Avatars on Gaming platforms
I have been pretty impressed at Microsoft's Avatar system, specifically the ability to actually use the avatar for special gaming. I have always felt Microsoft's Home Entertainment division as a whole always does such an exceptional job both with the business strategy and user experience. Now if only they would work on the failure rate of their hardware, or steal more ideas from Sony.
My problem is that Playstation’s exceptional idea with borrowing Nintendo’s Mii and then adding a virtual world to it brought a business model as thoughtful as that of the Second Life guys. Advertisements on billboards in your virtual world isn’t value added enough for gamers; they didn’t think far ahead enough – skeptical? Checkout how well Second Life is doing these days. Microsoft, on the other hand did what they sometimes do best. Take someone else’s idea, add a pinch of innovation (sometimes none) and integrate it with an existing platform. (example: Microsoft Office Online/Google Apps, Zune-Zune Social/ iPod-iTunes)
Video game avatar customization should be more than just a feature set to a platform, and product marketing in gaming should be more than just billboards. My prediction is that the Xbox Live team will steal more features from SCEA's HOME. They have already done so with Avatar Marketplace and Avatar customization. Then then add more value (business & UX) by incorporating a more dynamic monetizing processes, reward points for avatars through games, extending the avatar (http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/(gamertag)/avatar-body.png) and finally incorporating avatars into more video games like the Mii does. Imagine a Rockband "live" or a live 3 on 3 basketball tourney.
Examples of games that are currently playable with avatars:
Examples of games that I’d love to see playable live with avatars
NBA Live: Live 3-3 basketball tournaments
Poker or more card/board games
Media center, Party Watch – Like they did with netflix for those of us without Netflix
Rockband/Guitar Hero/DJ Hero Live Competitions
SCEA is falling behind on innovating, and if that is a strategy they are failing miserably. Nintendo is a gimmick and once Project natal or SCEA’s gesture controllers launch the gigs up. Cheers to you Microsoft, now please improve your hardware.
Join me on XBOX LIVE – ACK StigsFoot
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