So What Happens to My Gamer Pics and Themes

By Joe Haygood | July 16, 2008

So, yesterday, we got the announcement of the new system update that is coming to the 360, and it looks decent.  It seems to cater less to the core gamer, and more towards the Walmart and Target crowd, the same market Miis and PSN Home are looking to hit.  The Xbox 360 interface reminds me of a mix between Vista Media Center, and the Windows + Tab tiling feature that is in Windows Vista.  Nice, but not really necessary. 

Beyond this is a bigger issue, in my opinion.  I look at this new interface and I see that themes and gamer pics are gone.  An product of a soon to be bygone era in the 360 interface.  While this is not a huge issue, it seems like Microsoft has asked us to buy these things for just about every game they release, and now those that might of spent money on either the pics or the themes, is basically going to be up a creek without a paddle in regards to those point.

What is Microsoft looking to do for those people that bought into these gamer pics and themes, and from looking around at my friends list, a fair amount of people have bought into them?  Do they credit points back to these people?  Good customer service would say that this would be wise, but I have a feeling that Microsoft plans to gloss over this issue, hoping that people just forget that they spent that money on something that is no longer useful.  I would hope that the loyal customers would get something for their dedication to their favorite games, but in the long run, it looks to me to be lost money for the customer and easy money gained by good ole’ Microsoft.  Let me guess what is next, themed avatar clothing that costs me points.  Yay, break out the vasoline while it still got some gravel in it.