Any idiot could have seen this coming a mile away, but Microsoft has officially confirmed that it will be fleecing the crap out of people by opening up an Avatar Shop, allowing you the distinct privilege of buying animations, T-shirts and other bits of sh*t for your precious Avatar.
Robin Burrowes, product manager for Xbox Live in the Middle East and Africa, has the lowdown:
“Yes, more animations, more customize capabilities in terms of emotions and features but then also as well wardrobe enhancements over the course of time, so fashion brands hopefully launching new ranges through Avatars being one route. Obviously the whole world of Spore, football, etc, lends itself to this environment. Games themselves where you can customize your Avatar like the character from a game as well, these are all possibilities that Avatars will explore over the course of 2009 and beyond, definitely.”
After you’ve bought and paid for both your Xbox 360 and an Xbox Live Gold subscription, why not just tip your wallet upside down and shake all of your cash into Microsoft’s ever-slavering maw? If you want your Halo shirt, you’ll have to do it. If you don’t the other Avatars will think you’re a prat, and we can’t have that, can we?
The actual cost of this stuff is yet to be decided, but the sad thing is that I know I’ll end up caving in if I’m bored and have a useless amount of spare Microsoft Points, because that’s what happens when you sell stuff with fake Monopoly money. And I thought this was a New Xbox Experience — feeling cheated out of money by Microsoft isn’t a new experience, you lying arseholes!
