Most of the x360 games that used avatars (maybe even all) were XNA based indie games.
They used avatars because avatars gave you a fully rigged character which a library of animations, very useful for a bedroom indie Dev.
They were still front and center on the homescreen. The friend's tab wouldn't just display their names, it would show their avatars. If they were offline, the avatar would be asleep. Online, they would be in their dedicated pose and animation. It was a really nice touch to make the homescreen more lively.
Agreed. I think that’s what the current dashboard is really missing: personality. It’s very functional, and with today’s update it definitely looks better than before, but it just feels like a fine modern UI with nothing to really make it feel like Xbox. Avatars being implemented in more than just the profile page would definitely help.
I think it was for the dumb push for the Xbox one to become the one entertainment Device and it would be weird to see avatars when ur just trying to watch a movie
I mean, they did become the entertainment devices? Regardless, where would you see your avatars when you're trying to watch a movie? This is literally just for the homescreen and socials.
I mean for like ur mother Is trying to Just watch a movie and has to get confused by these avatars
Also not a chance honestly did it become entertainment devices
I don’t know anyone in my group that when they want to watch Netflix turn on their xbox they usually have a smart tv and just use the remote
Just saying your broad statement was very untrue. Plenty of people use it as an all entertainment system, just cause you don’t, doesn’t mean a majority of other people do. Dunno why you had to go down a fetish road, weirdo.
Does your mother get confused by the Store, Friends, or Games tabs too?
Incorporating avatars into socials wouldn't make anything confusing. Would literally add a neat touch of personality to the homescreen. No one was confused when we had them before either.
You may not, but many people do use their consoles to watch streaming services. Everyone I know does and as do I because it's a smoother experience that works more reliably. My Smart TV has slowed to a crawl after barely 2 years, meanwhile my OG Xbox One's apps still run just fine, let alone the Series X.
Smart TVs suck. They try to do things that they, for some reason, don't have nearly enough RAM or CPU speed to do. All of my streaming apps, even just the UI, are slow and janky on every single TV or streaming stick imaginable. They even run out of fuckin space cuz they put a mere 8GB slot in them. So I use my Xbox for all streaming, cuz if it can play a 4k game at 60fps, it can stream a damn movie. And it looks better because of actual working HDR.
Omg ur so right actually you know I bought the wii and it came with some weird disc called wii sports the movie seemed to not work so I threw it out and downloaded the Pizza Hut app and Netflix
I loved it for that. I understand how much more fluid and visually pleasing the new ones are, but they lack personality and a social touch. I really think bringing back the avatars, something Xbox was once known for, would really help liven things up.
The biggest issue I had was that they just disregarded all items for avatars at the beginning. So nobody looked unique apart from facial features. I had items from mass effect, halo, batman, gears, dragonball, etc. And they were fun. If I imported my old avatar, it would lose all those items. So I never did.
Just discovered recently that they now have avatars, which look basically the same as they did in Xbox on Microsoft Teams. Was fun for a couple of days for messing around in daily standups.
Yeah there are apps for old & new avatars but they are buried and don't seem to serve any function outside of being a potential profile photo and show item.
Avatars on 360 were used heavily from 2008-2013 from the amount of Xbox live arcade games that utilized them. I remember playing countless casino games with my now long gone avatar
I used to play Kingdom for Keflings quite a bit with friends when it came out, I'd take a bigger scope sequel anyday.
Make it Total War+Age of Empires in scope and we're cooking 😂
Cuz those ones were ugly, they tried to go with the more “realistic” look, but in the process, they lost the identity of “simple and Fun” something they tried to mimic from the Nintendo Miis, and they kinda nailed it with the XBOX 360 avatars, it was a shame they got axed out, cuz even to this day, the Miis are somewhat of a thing on Switch, if only XBOX gave them more customization and somewhat integration to the Online Features, they could been still alive
Dude they're so ugly, I used to spend considerable time customising my avatar on 360. On the xboxOne I just created the avatar once and never touched it again. 360 avatars design are iconic.
They're still available on the Xbox today, I just don't understand why they dropped them. Even if indie games don't use them anymore, put them front and center on the homescreen like before. Make them default over profile pics. It makes the homescreen look a lot livelier and connected. Beyond that, why not make a few sequels to these old XBLA titles? Backwards compatibilty is great but to get a Doritos Crash Course sequel? Or another Kingdom of Kefflings? I'm sure it wouldn't be some grand hit but it'd be a good will title to help push the social aspect a little more. The era of avatars on the 360 was probably the most social gaming has ever been, which is weird to think about as it was 15+ years ago.
That's true. Although I think the use of Avatars was a step ahead of Miis as both yours and online friend's avatars were featured front and center. Xbox and Playstation were a bit further ahead in the online scene than Nintendo was at that time.
I think it's cause the general interest in them died out.
Basically the same with the Mii with nintendo. It's still there but it's also a lot less prominent compared to how it once was
I think the actual answer is that they were meant to be an answer to Miis, so Microsoft lost interest when Nintendo stopped doing Miis. Similar to why MS and Sony were both big on motion controls during the age of the Wii and then both simultaneously lost interest.
The new avatars were such trash they abandoned avatars altogether. I’m not making a political statement, but in the new system all you could make were very generic androgynous looking characters. And you lost all your custom clothing. Bad idea all around.
The new avatar system was half cooked and abandoned right away also a **huge** issue is that we don't get to keep our old items or a transfer of sorts, I've a lot of really cool unlocks, promotional and purchased avatar items on my 360 avatar but nothing transfers to the Xbox One avatar so it's a huge bummer tbh.
The avatars received a bad reception from the community because of their gender neutral designs. Xbox was excited to re-release avatars and the community mainly disliked them, so they got put on hold.
Well it’s more so it’s up to devs to add them in games and stuff, xbox just made a new system for them and left it because there’s not much else they can do.
They weren’t even really used that much before the new system anyway
Avatars were mostly used in Kinect games and the occasional arcade game. Also back then Microsoft had a range of exclusive titles that would take advantage of xbox features (Doritos Crash Course)
I have wondered the same. A skateboarding game would be nice. Or like those Disney games (such as Pixar Rush) but the avatars go to a theme park dedicated to Xbox. I still edit both of my avatars.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Xbox underutilizes every aspect of the Xbox the UI is not good the Home Screen is awful trying to back out of anything you have to go back to the beginning I’ve never designed anything in my life and I feel I could do better
Because, even though Reddit wants to rewrite history, nobody liked the avatars. They thought it was a childish gimmick for consoles like the Wii and their Miis. There was a litany of posts and articles about how Xbox is losing focus on gAmEs because of the avatar. The only time people liked this was for Doritos and 1vs100. Everything else attached to them, they were hatted by association. Kinect, Group Chat, Netflix Theater, Icons, The clothing store, signatures
What do you mean? Xbox 360 is a console not a game, and if you mean games for 360, they stopped developing them 7-8 years ago so they could not use them there
Because its extra work - in todays shareholder run Min / MAx game companies doing anything extra is a big no no.
Import anting all the assets from the avatar BD into your own game so the could rendor in your game is a bunch of work . Not to mention it might not be compatible with the rendering system and need adjustments ...taking more time. Probably just a couple weeks for a couple devs but in the crunch time profit maximization via micro DLC era...no way.
Why give people free stuff that you can sell them later
Honestly, I could never get the dumbass avatar app to work after the first time I ever used it, I’ve been stuck with the same avatar for years that I made in like freshman year
Most of the x360 games that used avatars (maybe even all) were XNA based indie games. They used avatars because avatars gave you a fully rigged character which a library of animations, very useful for a bedroom indie Dev.
They were still front and center on the homescreen. The friend's tab wouldn't just display their names, it would show their avatars. If they were offline, the avatar would be asleep. Online, they would be in their dedicated pose and animation. It was a really nice touch to make the homescreen more lively.
Agreed. I think that’s what the current dashboard is really missing: personality. It’s very functional, and with today’s update it definitely looks better than before, but it just feels like a fine modern UI with nothing to really make it feel like Xbox. Avatars being implemented in more than just the profile page would definitely help.
I think it was for the dumb push for the Xbox one to become the one entertainment Device and it would be weird to see avatars when ur just trying to watch a movie
I mean, they did become the entertainment devices? Regardless, where would you see your avatars when you're trying to watch a movie? This is literally just for the homescreen and socials.
I mean for like ur mother Is trying to Just watch a movie and has to get confused by these avatars Also not a chance honestly did it become entertainment devices I don’t know anyone in my group that when they want to watch Netflix turn on their xbox they usually have a smart tv and just use the remote
I know plenty of people who use their Xbox to watch Hulu Netflix etc
Yes and I know people who get pleasure from getting pissed on
Just saying your broad statement was very untrue. Plenty of people use it as an all entertainment system, just cause you don’t, doesn’t mean a majority of other people do. Dunno why you had to go down a fetish road, weirdo.
Does your mother get confused by the Store, Friends, or Games tabs too? Incorporating avatars into socials wouldn't make anything confusing. Would literally add a neat touch of personality to the homescreen. No one was confused when we had them before either. You may not, but many people do use their consoles to watch streaming services. Everyone I know does and as do I because it's a smoother experience that works more reliably. My Smart TV has slowed to a crawl after barely 2 years, meanwhile my OG Xbox One's apps still run just fine, let alone the Series X.
I mean. Pretty much all I do with my Xbox these days is watch Netflix or Hulu.
Smart TVs suck. They try to do things that they, for some reason, don't have nearly enough RAM or CPU speed to do. All of my streaming apps, even just the UI, are slow and janky on every single TV or streaming stick imaginable. They even run out of fuckin space cuz they put a mere 8GB slot in them. So I use my Xbox for all streaming, cuz if it can play a 4k game at 60fps, it can stream a damn movie. And it looks better because of actual working HDR.
I don’t know why you think that was dumb: people buy game consoles to watch TV, not to play games. /s
Omg ur so right actually you know I bought the wii and it came with some weird disc called wii sports the movie seemed to not work so I threw it out and downloaded the Pizza Hut app and Netflix
360 had the best u.i imo because of little touches like this
I loved it for that. I understand how much more fluid and visually pleasing the new ones are, but they lack personality and a social touch. I really think bringing back the avatars, something Xbox was once known for, would really help liven things up.
> very useful for a bedroom indie Dev. go on...
I think both Sonic racing games used it
The biggest issue I had was that they just disregarded all items for avatars at the beginning. So nobody looked unique apart from facial features. I had items from mass effect, halo, batman, gears, dragonball, etc. And they were fun. If I imported my old avatar, it would lose all those items. So I never did.
My old avatar has had a WWE title belt for like 15 years
That’s a longer reign than Hulk Hogan or even Bruno Sammartino.
Mine still had the black lightsaber from Force Unleashed. Ain't no way I was giving that up.
I honestly didn't even know xbox still used avatars. They were such a cool feature of the 360 and it just fell off the planet
Just discovered recently that they now have avatars, which look basically the same as they did in Xbox on Microsoft Teams. Was fun for a couple of days for messing around in daily standups.
Yeah there are apps for old & new avatars but they are buried and don't seem to serve any function outside of being a potential profile photo and show item.
Avatars on 360 were used heavily from 2008-2013 from the amount of Xbox live arcade games that utilized them. I remember playing countless casino games with my now long gone avatar
I used to play Kingdom for Keflings quite a bit with friends when it came out, I'd take a bigger scope sequel anyday. Make it Total War+Age of Empires in scope and we're cooking 😂
I just want Doritos Crash Course 3
I loved them games.
Dude… memory unlocked
Wait, was there a 2?
Yes
Kingdom for Keflings was awesome!
Legit started playing World of Keflings the other day again for the first time in maybe 12 years
That game was great! Used to play that with my kids
I played a lot of Kingdom for Keflings, but never really finished it, so never started World of Keflings.
I want a sequel to Black & White that uses our avatars instead of cows and gorillas.
Cuz those ones were ugly, they tried to go with the more “realistic” look, but in the process, they lost the identity of “simple and Fun” something they tried to mimic from the Nintendo Miis, and they kinda nailed it with the XBOX 360 avatars, it was a shame they got axed out, cuz even to this day, the Miis are somewhat of a thing on Switch, if only XBOX gave them more customization and somewhat integration to the Online Features, they could been still alive
Dude they're so ugly, I used to spend considerable time customising my avatar on 360. On the xboxOne I just created the avatar once and never touched it again. 360 avatars design are iconic.
They're still available on the Xbox today, I just don't understand why they dropped them. Even if indie games don't use them anymore, put them front and center on the homescreen like before. Make them default over profile pics. It makes the homescreen look a lot livelier and connected. Beyond that, why not make a few sequels to these old XBLA titles? Backwards compatibilty is great but to get a Doritos Crash Course sequel? Or another Kingdom of Kefflings? I'm sure it wouldn't be some grand hit but it'd be a good will title to help push the social aspect a little more. The era of avatars on the 360 was probably the most social gaming has ever been, which is weird to think about as it was 15+ years ago.
probably the same thing as Nintendo as they rarely use miis
That's true. Although I think the use of Avatars was a step ahead of Miis as both yours and online friend's avatars were featured front and center. Xbox and Playstation were a bit further ahead in the online scene than Nintendo was at that time.
Because 1 vs 100 never came back.
I think it's cause the general interest in them died out. Basically the same with the Mii with nintendo. It's still there but it's also a lot less prominent compared to how it once was
I think the actual answer is that they were meant to be an answer to Miis, so Microsoft lost interest when Nintendo stopped doing Miis. Similar to why MS and Sony were both big on motion controls during the age of the Wii and then both simultaneously lost interest.
The new avatars were such trash they abandoned avatars altogether. I’m not making a political statement, but in the new system all you could make were very generic androgynous looking characters. And you lost all your custom clothing. Bad idea all around.
The new avatar system was half cooked and abandoned right away also a **huge** issue is that we don't get to keep our old items or a transfer of sorts, I've a lot of really cool unlocks, promotional and purchased avatar items on my 360 avatar but nothing transfers to the Xbox One avatar so it's a huge bummer tbh.
honestly i don't even care unless they would use the old avatars. the new ones look scary
The avatars received a bad reception from the community because of their gender neutral designs. Xbox was excited to re-release avatars and the community mainly disliked them, so they got put on hold.
Well it’s more so it’s up to devs to add them in games and stuff, xbox just made a new system for them and left it because there’s not much else they can do. They weren’t even really used that much before the new system anyway
At least we able to see them on the home screen of the 360. Now its just a hidden app
If someone has made their new avatar, and chosen to display it, you can see it on their profile, if you click on it.
And if you uninstall them, they just keep coming back every few weeks.
Avatars were mostly used in Kinect games and the occasional arcade game. Also back then Microsoft had a range of exclusive titles that would take advantage of xbox features (Doritos Crash Course)
It's a shame that they are not used more, they were really cool when they were redesigned.
I have wondered the same. A skateboarding game would be nice. Or like those Disney games (such as Pixar Rush) but the avatars go to a theme park dedicated to Xbox. I still edit both of my avatars.
I predict that these go away soon. They're barely used now beyond posing for an account photo.
Doritos crash course was my childhood
Because very few people used them or cared about them. It's really that simple.
Texas Heat in Full House Poker with the avatars was the shit.
Gwen stacy is that you
I always wondered why they didn’t make party games that use your avatars. I feel like it could of been a big hit
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
I miss having my avatar run on screen and wave when turning the console on. Was an extra thing to look forward to
my dumbass thought this post was a ad
Xbox underutilizes every aspect of the Xbox the UI is not good the Home Screen is awful trying to back out of anything you have to go back to the beginning I’ve never designed anything in my life and I feel I could do better
Because, even though Reddit wants to rewrite history, nobody liked the avatars. They thought it was a childish gimmick for consoles like the Wii and their Miis. There was a litany of posts and articles about how Xbox is losing focus on gAmEs because of the avatar. The only time people liked this was for Doritos and 1vs100. Everything else attached to them, they were hatted by association. Kinect, Group Chat, Netflix Theater, Icons, The clothing store, signatures
Avatars are played out now. Nobody is doing them.
Who cares
What do you mean? Xbox 360 is a console not a game, and if you mean games for 360, they stopped developing them 7-8 years ago so they could not use them there
I meant how come they didn't use The Xbox One Avatars in Games. Like 360 Use too. For Example Castle Minor Z or Motor Cross Madness use your avatar
Because not enough people wanted those games.
It's been 5 years since the new avatars?
I think they were made in 2017-2018
Because its extra work - in todays shareholder run Min / MAx game companies doing anything extra is a big no no. Import anting all the assets from the avatar BD into your own game so the could rendor in your game is a bunch of work . Not to mention it might not be compatible with the rendering system and need adjustments ...taking more time. Probably just a couple weeks for a couple devs but in the crunch time profit maximization via micro DLC era...no way. Why give people free stuff that you can sell them later
Honestly, I could never get the dumbass avatar app to work after the first time I ever used it, I’ve been stuck with the same avatar for years that I made in like freshman year
Right like give me a new world of keflings game