Microsoft Pulling “Gun-Like” Avatars On Jan. 1

Microsoft is preparing to pull all “gun-like’ avatar props from its XBox Live system on January 1.

News of the strange occurrence was announced by Gears of War developer Epic Games.

According to Community Manager Will Kinsler:

As of January 1, the Hammerburst, Lancer, and other items wouldn’t be available as a matter of policy.

There is some good news for current avatar owning gamers, anyone who purchased their avatar before Jan. 1 2011 will be able to keep them.

At this time Microsoft has not made an official announcement about the decision, however they are likely attempted to soften their image as a young family oriented base gravitated towards the gaming platforms Kinect system.

I should be quick to point out that games using the Kinect tend not to include props such as Kinect Adventures which makes it an odd decision to pull the weapons which in turn could anger part of the company’s traditional gamer base.

In the meantime Sony and Nintendo have been able to avoid this issue all together by not allowing props in the first place for their avatar based characters.

Do you think it’s right for Microsoft to pull the avatars because a new demographic has been introduced to their gaming system or should they stay true to their original game buying base?