A wise man once said: “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.” Truer words have never been spoken and in the case of the new Avatars that will be appearing on the Xbox 360, you can color Shigeru Miayamoto very flattered.

In a recent interview, Miyamoto shared his thoughts on Microsoft’s new support for Avatars and why he feels they are a totally separate thing from what Nintendo is offering with Mii’s, saying, “I don’t really use the term avatar to refer to what we’ve done with the Miis. We created the Miis with the idea that the people you live with in your house or family, you also live together with inside the TV, and you can use those characters interchangeably in the games you play.”

He also gave a sort of nod to Microsoft for acknowledging Nintendo’s trendsetting foresight to try something new, “To see that a company like Microsoft has taken something we’ve done and kind of looked at it in a way and brought it out on their platform to kind of show that we’ve done has become the standard, I find quite flattering.”