A survey being sent out by Microsoft hints at the possibility of a Avatar arcade coming to the Xbox 360, not unlike the PS3′s Home.

The suvey asked: “Which of the following names would most compel you to purchase the product?: Game Room, RetroCade, Game Gallery, Tower of ROM, Tower of Game(s), and “Classics LIVE”, among others. Personally I like Game Gallery and Tower of Games.

Microsoft was quick to act upon the speculation by saying that a survey was sometimes just that – a survey: “We regularly conduct surveys about our products but they’re not indicative of any planning,” said a Microsoft spokesperson to VG247.

New Xbox Live feature or just a survey?

Activision has just announced in a press release that Xbox 360 Avatars will be usable as playable characters in Guitar Hero 5. If you don’t think this is the coolest thing ever, shame on you.

You can see the avatars in action in the video below, courtesy of Blur!

The full press release is after the cut.

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Have you ever looked at your Avatar’s clothing and thought: “Y’know, they could use some business clothes..”

Well now they have, and it’s free to boot! Thanks Major Nelson.

Male

* Blue formal shirt
* Moleskin pants
* Waistcoat and shirt
* Suit and tie

Female

* Pencil skirt
* Slacks
* Pinstripe blazer
* Twin set

Chatting with VG247 today, Rare stated that it is currently considering features to allow users to create their own Avatar kit, saying that user-generation was “simply too big a deal to force into NXE’s launch last year”.

“User-generated content is a huge area that would not have been done any justice if we had tried to cram it into the launch release of this project,” Avatars designer, Dale Murchie said.

“There may be features coming that open up the expressive potential of the Xbox community, but we’re keeping quiet on that for now.”

Microsoft just has just unlocked the first clothing pack for our NXE avatars; a winter themed collection of hat, gloves and the sort, to keep your virtual avatar warm in his/her virtual winter.

Each gender has four new items of clothing to pick from. And best of all? They’re free!

To access them, all you need to do is going to the avatar customisation page. Yup, it really is that simple.

It looks like this is going to be the way avatar clothing is unlocked for the near future, at least until the Avatar Store launches in April next year. What kind of clothing would you like to see?

With the launch of the new NXE and the “avatars” system, some gamers have been frustrated with the system’s limited selection of virtual clothing. We can relax those concerns for now at least; most of it will be free for the foreseeable future.

Talking to German website Dreisechzig, Xbox German product manager Boris Schneider-Johne confirmed that the first few weeks of new Avatar clothes will be available for free, but future ones may come at a price, depending on consumer reaction.

“More costumes will be made available for free in the next weeks” says Schneider-Johne, adding “what’s going to happen as of spring is yet to be announced.”

Real money for virtual clothing? Well, crazier things have happened…

After a day of maintenance, the Xbox.com website has come back online, and has added a number of additions to its functionality in the process; avatars in profiles, and the web-based Marketplace, which is almost complete.

The new web-based Marketplace will allow people logged into their Gamertags to buy stuff directly from the Live Store on their computer, and then download it free of charge to their Xbox 360 whenever they want.

Also, those who already have the NXE installed on their computer and have created an avatar will now see them included on their profile pages on the website.

The New Xbox Experience launched tomorrow, worldwide.

You’d better be, because it’s just around the corner; the New Xbox Experience (NXE) will be a compulsory download for anyone hoping to access Xbox Live after it finally hits down on November 19th.

It’s definately been worth the wait though.

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Europe, Middle East and African Xbox Live product manager Robin Burrowes, has confirmed to the press today that an online store for “Avatars” on the Xbox 360 will launching next spring.

“The plan of record will be to launch a more extensive Avatar Store from spring time onwards next year, and that store in theory would have branded content in there, game publisher IP stuff in there as well,” said Burrowes.

So, what kinda content should we expect in the “Avatar Store” then?

“Yes, more animations, more customise 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 customise 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.”

Pricing is currently “under discussion”

So, how would you payto have your avatar look like Dante, Master Chief or Chun-Li?

The always lovable Major Nelson has just released a new video as part of his development diary, which shows out how Avatar creation will work in the upcoming Xbox Experience update.

It doesn’t look half bad.

The Xbox Experience will hit 360s sometime in November. Are you prepared?

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