Rare: Avatar development started pre-Mii
by Alexander Sliwinski 
on Sep 11th 2008 4:00PM
Rare, developer of Microsoft's Avatars, explains that any similarity between its creations and Nintendo's Miis is purely coincidental. In an interview with
Eurogamer, the company's art director, Lee Musgrave, states that Rare was working with the idea of Avatars (not necessarily for the
New Xbox Experience) before Miis were part of the gaming landscape. Microsoft apparently liked the idea enough to make it part of its dashboard overhaul.
Musgrave makes it clear that Microsoft didn't show up one day and ask for a counter to the Mii. He claims there were many questions about what form the Avatars should take (animals, Spore-like creatures, ultra-realistic humans), but they eventually landed on something that had "approachability." Apparently, Nintendo agrees.
