Xbox Adding Wheelchairs As Option For Avatars
Xbox avatars have been an integral part of the Xbox experience ever since their debut in November of 2008, and now they may finally be broadening their appeal to an even greater part of the population by including the ability to create an avatar in a wheelchair.
In response to a conversation on Twitter, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said on July 3 that avatars in wheelchairs were, “not far off.” On the next day, Mike Ybarra, the Director of Program Management for Xbox and Windows followed suit by sharing an image of two Xbox avatars in wheelchairs.
The sneak peek was greeted with a mixture of praise and complaints. Some thought the move enable gamers to feature their Xbox avatars in wheelchairs was a bold and encouraging move, prompting one user to say he was proud to be an Xbox user. Other users didn’t like the avatars’ faces or wanted the ability to use different versions of wheelchairs.
Gamers have used avatars in the past for anything from simply being their profile picture to using them in certain games. Xbox 360 titles, such as Kinect Sports, even allowed gamers to use their avatars in the game itself. While this functionality hasn’t carried over to the Xbox One, gamers still enjoy having their profile picture be an accurate digital recreation of themselves, which means that the addition of wheelchairs could spur new excitement and a renewed interest for a whole new population of gamers. At the very least, it shows gamers that Microsoft is listening and cares about its fans.
Avatars, which made their debut on the Xbox 360, haven’t been implemented in the same way on Xbox One. The announcement of more customization options for avatars may come as a surprise to many, considering they haven’t been an integral part of the Xbox One experience.
In other Xbox news, Rockstar, creator of the Grand Theft Auto series, announced that the 2010 critical success and fan-favorite Red Dead Redemption will be playable on Xbox One through its backwards compatibility feature beginning July 8. Gamers were in a frenzy in February of this year when the game was briefly playable on Xbox One, but Microsoft announced this was an error, and the game was removed from the backwards compatibility library.
Microsoft tests all Xbox 360 games with our [backwards compatibility] emulator to ensure a quality experience across a breadth of titles. Due to an error, some of the games currently in test were accidentally made available. We have since removed access to those games, and apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We will have more information on upcoming releases soon.
According to GameSpot, sales of Red Dead Redemption on Xbox 360 (which is the version that will be playable on Xbox One) have jumped over 6000% since the announcement on July 5. On Microsoft’s backwards compatibility request site, it has been one of the most popular titles, sitting behind only The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Skyrim was recently announced as coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in a remastered state, so it is uncertain whether it will ever come as a backwards compatible title.
[Photo by Nick Ut/AP Images]
