Avatar Kinect rumours abound

THE INTERNET is aflame with rumours that Microsoft is prepping an interactive Avatar Kinect Xbox Live update for its fans.

We're not talking about retro-engineering Kinect to play on the terrible Avatar game based on James Cameron's film. We're talking about an Xbox live update for Xbox360 Kinect owners that will allow motion control interaction with friends using their avatars.

The news comes with leaked screenshots ahead of Microsoft's keynote presentation scheduled for CES 2011 today. Glimpse Dog has a couple of screenshots of the Vole's avatars that were spotted on a projection screen in Las Vegas, and the blogs have filled in the gaps with a raft of spurious speculation.

From what we can see, the general consensus seems to be that Avatar Kinect will be a downloadable dashboard update over Xbox Live. The idea is to allow Kinect users to have a virtual social gaming network they can pop their avatars into in order to interact with other users.

The idea isn't a new one. Nintendo and Sony already beat Microsoft to the punch with their own respective social gaming networks. Nintendo has its Mii Plaza for Wii punters with a dedicated networked playground to connect users. Sony also has the less interesting Playstation Home with a space for its console users to connect online.

However, both Nintendo and Sony's virtual playgrounds don't add up to much more than an instant messenger service with fancy graphics for strangers to shout abuse at one another.

With gesture control and possibly even the ability to jump into mini-games from the website, Avatar Kinect could be a good showcase for Microsoft's technology. µ