We invented the human avatar
A MICROSOFT boss has been telling world plus dog that he was the first to invent controllable 3D human avatars.
Don Mattrick has been ringing around IT magazines making the claim as if he wants it put on his tombstone.
He told Official Xbox Magazine he was claiming to have invented avatars, because he came up with 4D Sports Boxing.
The game was developed by Distinctive Software, (DSI) from Vancouver under their secondary trade name Unlimited Software.
Mattrick said that 4D Sports Boxing had the first human, 3D, face.
He said it was a starting point, and Vole were the first to do it.
In the middle of the rant, Mattrick also claimed that when he worked at EA he pushed the concept in a few games including The Sims and Ultima Online.
The 'New Xbox Experience', of which the avatars are a part, is due to launch worldwide on 19th November and it will all be Mattrick's fault, apparently. µ
L'Inq
Eurogamer
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I was in Tangiers, when I was working for the OSS.
..sounds about right.

Microsoft invented innovation.
Like any bot in a shooter these days, then ?
May I be the first to welcome our live-action Dominatrix overlords in leather knee-highs.
Rrwooaarr !!
But UO is a 2D game with an isometric view :)

(original client)
Although normal people don't particularly like that stuff it does seem to fascinate some journalist and assorted weirdos a lot and so it'll keep those off the street and away from the public, so a win situation you could argue.
No, Geppetto made me more than hundred years ago. Don Mattrick, watch your nose!
Neal Stephenson described this idea in his novel Snow Crash back in 1992. He exactly described a 3D VR representation of a real person, so it is hardly an original idea from this Microsoft clown. If it was it would be a revolution... an original idea from Microsoft! Stephenson didn't just mention it in passing - he used it as a central theme and fleshed it out in detail. (Going back further a 1986 RPG Habitat game was the first use of the term Avatar but that was text mode). I wouldn't have been suprised if they'd tried to patent the idea and got shot down: too much prior art.
Neo: What is the Mattrickx? 
Inq: The answer is out there, Neo, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to. 
Agent Brown: What were you doing? 
Agent Sarkozy: He doesn't know. 
[Neo sees a Balkmer cat walk by them, and then a similar Otilene cat walk by them just like the first one] 
Neo: Whoa. Déjà vu. 
[Everyone freezes right in their tracks]
Agent Obama: Were you listening to me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress? 
Chorus: Anti-competitive behaviour gives rise to descension from the War on the Economy, which beggars thy neighbour's question.
Neo: Fujitsu? I'm gonna learn Fujitsu? 
Inq: The possibilities are infinite.
Microsoft: Our way... or the highway
[they all listen on their ear-pieces] 
James Bond: I really think you people should meet in a better place.
So I'm posting here.

Years and years ago, I worked for a small indi game retailer.

I'm pretty sure that a game was released before Wing Commander (1990) that was 3D and had a coupon that, if you sent it back to the developers along with a photo, would return you a 3.5" floppy with your face on a file that could be used in the game.

Given that 4D Sports Boxing came out a year after Wing Commander, I'd say this guy is a tw*t.

If only I could remember the title of the game. I think it came out around the Starglider 2 release (1988) or soon after as it had solid 3D objects.
It ran like crap on my 386SX; you needed a DX 40Mhz at least (actually, once I got a math coprocessor I believe it wasn't quite so bad). It certainly did seem novel at the time, so he may be right. Still, it wasn't much of a game and so I don't think it was ever installed on my 486+ machines which actually could have handled it. :P