The new updates to Game Center in iOS 5 shows Apple is continually thinking of ways to improve the Game Center experience. A new patent that was dug up by AppleInsider shows Apple may be thinking about getting into the virtual avatar game that Nintendo started with its Miis and Microsoft with its Xbox Live Avatars.
The patent shows Game Center users would be able to create an avatar from scratch, allowing for a number of features such as hair, eyes, and its mouth to be customizable. Once the avatar is to the user’s liking, accessories, such as hats or glasses, can be placed onto the avatar. If the user isn’t much of an artist, the patent shows Apple will give the user an option to manually or automatically create avatars for the user.
The Game Center avatars won’t just be a digital representation of the user as Apple also may allow the avatars to be used in applications, similar to how both Nintendo’s Miis and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Avatars can be injected into games that support the feature.
Seeing as how Apple allowed users to upload photos in Game Center’s iOS 5 update, I don’t see why they’d bother to offer the option of allowing users to create avatars. Although, that is exactly what I said when I heard Microsoft would be creating Xbox Live Avatars, and it’s absolutely disgusting how much money I’ve spent customizing my avatar.
[via Joystiq]