In a recent trip to Microsoft's Washington campus, former-Multiplayer/current-Kotaku editor, Stephen Totilo, noticed signs plastered throughout the hallways, hyping the launch of the Avatar Marketplace on Xbox Live. Each ad was basically a quote from an article or a commenter talking about the Marketplace in some favorable way. I guess it's a good way to drum up corporate yee-haw spirit!

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As you probably already know, today's Xbox 360 dashboard update adds the Avatar Marketplace, where you'll be able to purchase clothing and accessories for your avatar. Jaded gamers may scoff, but I have a distinct feeling that a lot of you are going to see all the fancy new threads in your friends lists and break down, dropping a dollar or two on a nifty new hat or giant ear swab. Admit it, you're weak!

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The August 11th dashboard update for the Xbox 360 will introduce unlockable "rewardables" for your avatar. Basically achieving certain objectives in games will result in unlocking a game-specific item for your avatar customization. Microsoft's shown samples, like a "Halo" warthog or pom poms, but no games have been specifically announced to support the feature just yet.

I was wondering if you guys had any requests for rewardables in this holiday's video game line-up. Like where's my "Left 4 Dead" molotov? Thankfully you guys had some other options:

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Come August 11th, you'll be able to plunk down real world cash (or, I guess, Microsoft Points) for items that your 360 avatar can carry around with them. For example, a pirate-themed telescope from "The Secret of Monkey Island" or the above chicken from...somewhere. The idea is to set yourself apart from other players with this unique doodad.

Unfortunately at the time of the update you won't be seeing your carryables appearing in games, as games will need to release a title update before props (or any of the other new dashboard features) appear in-game.

Ben Smith is the Director of Program Management for Xbox. Basically that means he leads the team that designs all the software that makes up the operating system for the Xbox 360, so he should know what will and won't appear on August 11th. Here's what Smith had to say regarding avatar props:

"When we build the core technology that we put into our software developer kits, they also have to have the base Xbox Live update so developers can enable [new features]. So we won't see games built with all of that functionality that we see in the Xbox Live update until after the update launches. It'll be in either one of two paths. Either new games would have those new features or old games would need a title update to integrate that functionality."

Considering games won't feature props for some time, you'll really only see them on your own dashboard and occasionally when browsing your friends list. So yeah, not exactly super visible, given the expense. You may want to hold off under "rewardable" props start appearing. After all, those are free!

Activision announced today that "Guitar Hero 5" will support avatars, which means you'll be able to bring your 360-made character into the game for explicit rocking-out purposes.

As much as people have sort of poo-pooed the whole avatar thing, I see nothing wrong with them. Games that support them make me feel a little more attached, even if they're only used in menus (like "Worms 2: Armageddon"), so their inclusion in "Guitar Hero 5" is a nifty extra. But it seems like avatar-implementation has only scratched the surface. What other games would you guys like to see your avatar in?

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