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Flatly rejecting the holiday spirit of giving, Microsoft has released a new collection of premium Avatar items. As you may have guessed, the items have a holiday theme. The collection encompasses a large range of items from New Year's hats to dashikis to dreidels. Microsoft has even released the traditional ugly Christmas sweater, even going so far as to title it "Ugly Sweater." That's right, you can spend real money on a digital version of the worst possible present you could receive.

The only thing more depressing is knowing that people will actually buy it.

We often worry that our Avatars get lonely when we're not focusing our attention on our 360s. We can give them all the toys we want, but it's just not the same as the touch of another living, not-living pet. Tomorrow, they'll finally have a proper companion as pets come to the Avatar Marketplace, including Large Dog, Pug Dog, Dog in Bag, Cat, Siamese Cat, Long Haired Cat, Goldfish, Guinea Pig, Monkey, Bird, Snake and Pony each for 240 ($3).

By the way, we're hoping that by "Dog in Bag" we're talking about the purse kind and not the "adolescent sign of future deviant behavior" kind. Only time will tell, we suppose.

We all have guilty pleasures, this much we all know. But some guilty pleasures are too guilty. Case in point: Michael Bay's Transformers movies. We bring this up because some new Avatar items based on his work -- and consequent games -- are now available for purchase on Xbox Live, including the Optimus Prime and Megatron helmets you see above, as well as several branded t-shirts. Now, if you want to run to your Xbox and drop some real money on these fake duds right now, fine, more power to you. However, if you expect to still be on our friends' list afterward, well, we should probably talk.

In a feat considerably easier than breeding a golden chocobo in Final Fantasy VII, fans of Square Enix's thirteenth Final outing have unlocked a special Xbox Live Avatar item through the power of word of mouth (via keyboard). After garnering enough specially tagged messages on Twitter (some speculate that this may have represent some sort of "marketing tactic"), the folks at Microsoft have seen fit to entrust an adorable virtual chocobo to your Avatar.

If you're in North America, UK, France or Germany and registered on the site, you can expect a download code via email by mid-December. If not, we've placed something after the break to cheer you up.

[Via @AceyBongos]

• Vault 101 Suit -- 240 ($3)
• Bethesda Game Studios Shirt -- 80 ($1)
• Fallout 3 Ringer Shirt -- 80 ($1)
• Vault Boy Shirt -- 80 ($1)
• Vault Boy Suit -- 240 ($3)
• Vault Boy Head -- 80 ($1)

We might normally scoff at the array of Xbox Live Avatar clothing being made available for Band Hero – a near ubiquitous occurrence with game releases for the Xbox 360 these days. Not today though, friends. Nope, today we have the opportunity to get our Avatar a totally rad, Say Anything style boombox. We know, we know – finally. For the low, low price of 240 ($3), you too can be as cool as Lloyd Dobler (though there's no promise of landing a lady as fine as Diane Court with said item).

We suppose you could pick up the other stuff too, available for 80 ($1) to 240 ($3), if you're into that kinda thing. You could get a microphone or a shirt or a ... just get the boombox, alright? You don't wanna end up being given a pen and getting told how "valuable the friendship" is, do you? Hmm?

You know what would make becoming the "chosen one" in your late night 1 vs. 100 bouts a whole lot easier? Just imagine: The camera pans up to your seat -- but you're nowhere to be found. You're a white-garbed shadow, slipping through the crowd, silently executing other would-be contestants. It's a beautiful dream that could be realized if you pick up one of the new Assassin's Creed 2 Avatar costumes -- a set which includes Ezio and Altair's respective get-ups (400), Da Vinci's Flying Machine (240) and a whole mess of other items that no hitman (or hitwoman) should go without.

Also, there's a whole slew of DJ Hero content, including a few turntables (240), a "Ghetto Blaster" (160) and some virtual vinyl (160). While the DJ lifestyle isn't nearly as attractive as that of an assassin, we suppose these accouterments are still pretty sharp.

Are your Avatars ill-equipped to raid a terrorist safe house? Well, good news: Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling (aka fourzerotwo) revealed Modern Warfare 2 gear will soon be available for players to purchase on Xbox Live's Avatar Marketplace.

Revealed in a recent Tweet, Bowling stated that Infinity Ward will upload the content to Xbox Live tomorrow -- which includes the Ghost outfit pictured above. In an email to Joystiq, Bowling confirmed the content will be made available for purchase tomorrow. Until then, we'll sleep soundly knowing that the Avatar world will soon be safe from terrorist scum.

[Thanks, B. Marriner]

New information on Microsoft's still free for now Xbox Live-based game show 1 vs. 100 has been a bit on the light side since the game's initial release so many moons ago. The official 1 vs. 100 Blogs have detailed some new features of the game's second season.

For one, rather than Avatars amorphously apparating on-stage, "The One" will strut down a central staircase right after dropping a fancy pose on the plebeians below. Players in the hot seat will also have their Xbox Live statuses automatically set to "Busy," so as not to knock their concentration from the mind grape squeezing at hand. No details were revealed on when we might actually get to play more 1 vs. 100, unfortunately.

[Via Destructoid]

In the spirit of the season, Microsoft has released some Halloween costumes for Avatars. There's quite a spooky selection to choose from, including ghosts, cowboys, werewolves, vampires, wizards, witches and Frankenstein's monster. For good measure, Microsoft even threw in a skeleton and a mummy. All of the outfits cost 240 ($3), but you'll need to pay another 80 ($1) if your outfit of choice features a hat.

Perhaps the most frightening of all is the male Sheriff's outfit. It's something about the combination of the incredibly tight fit, coupled with the standard, effeminate Avatar pose. It just don't look right.

With most street savvy gamers expecting Modern Warfare 2 to be one of the biggest -- if not the biggest -- releases of 2009, it's not too surprising to learn that Infinity Ward has Avatar items in the works. According to IW's fourzerotwo, AKA community guru Robert Bowlling, the company is preparing some items for Xbox 360 Avatars, adding that some of them will "hopefully" be free. On the same subject, Bowling notes that he's "not sure" whether the game will include any unlockable Avatar Awards. That's unfortunate, as we've yet to see a single game use the Avatar Awards feature -- even the those that have been confirmed to support it.

If a consumer survey sent over to us by a tipster is to be believed, Microsoft is looking to bring a virtual Avatar arcade to the Xbox 360. Some of the potential names listed in the survey are "Game Room," "RetroCade," "Tower of ROM," and "Classics LIVE." Yeah, we're partial to "Tower of ROM" also.

If the proposed service sounds familiar, that's because it's nearly identical to PlayStation Home's arcade spaces – like Namco's virtual arcade – just replace the dead-eyed dopplegangers of Home with the scrunchable avatars of Xbox 360. The second survey question sent to us asks, "Which of the following names would most compel you to purchase the product?" indicating that the "Tower of ROM" might not be a free space but could instead have a fee associated with it.

While the survey doesn't give us much more to go on (besides a sinking feeling that we're not interested), we thought we'd ask you, Joystiq Biomass, to weigh in on the product's name. Let the fat cats in Redmond know what you think!

Speaking at the First Annual Microsoft Open House in NYC, Robbie Bach, president of the company's entertainment and devices division, was touting the strength of the 360 platform. Along with the impressive news that the results of 425 million games had been crunched for matchmaking, Bach also said that Avatar clothing had been changed more than 150 million times. When you divide that by the 20 million Xbox Live users the company's claiming, that's ... more than 7 changes each. We're a bit worried about some of you.

Gang, please, keep your dignity intact: Set it once -- walk away. It's the only sane thing to do. Of course, Bach also said that 200,000 games of 1 vs. 100 were being played every weekend, so maybe you guys are just trying to get spiffed up for Chris Cashman. We hope it was worth it.