It seems that a new policy going into affect January 1, 2012 will cause all gun-like Avatar items to be banned from Xbox Live. With news from EPIC Games, EPIC is claiming that Microsoft is banning and removing any and all gun-like Avatar props as part of their new mandate. This comes at a surprise, especially since most of the more popular Avatar items over Xbox Live are based on games that are based off of shooter games, like Gears of War, Halo, or Call of Duty. However, for those who already bought an Avatar “gun-like” item, you will still be able to keep it without any change. If you delete it for any reason though, don’t expect to ever see it again on the marketplace. So word of advice, start grabbing all the weapon-like Avatar items now before they are all gone within a few weeks. Who knows now, we might end up getting a whole sub-culture of cool kids who have Lancers and BRs, while the rest of us will have to settle for teddy bears and medkits.
EPIC’s Annoucement on Forum — http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/870773-Lancer-and-Hammerburst-avatar-items-no-longer-available-on-Marketplace-on-1-1-2012
I bet this was a ploy to boost avatar gun sales. I wonder how many they sold between announcing the ban and actually doing it :p