Xbox avatars going HD; 360 and One games to have separate Achievements

Microsoft has revealed a number of new details about Xbox One, including a significant upgrade to avatars.

Chief Xbox One platform architect Marc Whitten told IGN that the company is upgrading Xbox Live avatars to allow for full-body HD gamerpics. In fact, the old 64×64 gamerpics are being ditched altogether in favour of a full-HD alternative.

They are beautiful,” Whitten reckons. You are going to see some really cool hero moments, like when you login to see personalized views of your games and other content.”

The exec also confirmed that Xbox One’s DVR functionality, which will constantly capture gameplay footage, records footage at 720p and 30 frames per second. This footage can then be edited and uploaded directly from the console.

There’s more too – Whitten has revealed that games released on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One will have separate Achievements on each platform. So for instance, an owner of both consoles will be able to buy Call of Duty: Ghosts on each and earn two sets of Achievements.

But on the Xbox One version, you’re getting a much richer set of features, such as seeing your achievements progress on the Xbox One console, being able to unlock new achievements throughout the year, and earning real prizes inside and outside of the game,” he added.

Xbox One also enables a new concept of challenges, where games will be offering special time-based opportunities to earn various goals and collect the rewards.”