Of course Microsoft is copying. Come on. They even had fucking RARE develop the idea. Microsoft has literally got an army of programmers and everything but yet they make Rare develop it, likely because since they have worked with Nintendo for a long time they are the closest thing they have to take what Nintendo made and "improve" upon it. It also seems that Rare is now their "casual / mainstream" studio which develops software like Viva Pinata and Banjo 360 to also appeal to the mainstream casual instead of only the hardcore and these Avaters fall in line with that.
If Nintendo didn't make the Mii concept, or better worded, if it wouldn't be popular with the mainstream / casuals/ expanded audience then they simply would not have made these Avaters. So yeah, they are copying Nintendo. When asked about the similarity between Mii's and Avaters Microsoft representative said that the Avaters are different because they have necks as well as arms and legs (Mii's don't have necks) and are more customizable. Nintendo have toyed with the idea for 20 years (long before the world saw The Sims or whatever), and finally made a final concept of it that was unique and they set a standard with it that proved to be succesfull so it was quite likely that others would take the idea and expand on it. Not that there is anything wrong with what Microsoft is doing, but to say they didn't copy it from Nintendo is just wrong.
Awesome pictures though, I love the expressions
"You're going DOWN bitch! First to 10 million wins!"
Miyamoto: "(I just got inspiration for a new mega seller!) ..sorry what?"
Duck said:
Those pics are prime photoshop material.
don't disappoint me gaf
these are so awesome that they don't need photoshop