Microsoft brings gun control to Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace

If you’ve had your eyes on a Golden Hammerburst or Lancer (with matching chain) for your Xbox Live Avatar, you’ve only got about a week to grab it. An official post from community manager Raczilla on the Epic Games forums has told users that, as of the new year, Microsoft is removing all gun-like items from the Marketplace – though you’ll still be able to equip anything you’ve bought in the past. This new restriction is added to the already long list for developers of what avatars can and can’t do, including talking, smoking, and violence.

We’ve not heard anything from Microsoft on this just yet, and we’re also struggling to find many other weapon props in the market — a Duke Nukem freeze ray and the Bat Grapple being the closest contenders, but neither of which intimate harm. Rick’s Tank (from The Walking Dead) and a miniature tank (from military collection) fire bullets, but they aren’t “gun-like.” The Rise of Nightmares chainsaw, to go off on a small tangent, is (so far) still ominously cutting down trees.

As with all Xbox Live and gun-related stories, we’d be remiss not to bring up the awesome — and also banned — “finger gun” commercial from years back. Enjoy:

Ross Miller contributed to this report.