One thing that Apple has really been pushing in iOS for the past few years is its Game Center, turning your playing of apps on your iOS device into more of a full gaming experience where you can compare scores and go against your friends just like a fully fledged games console. Well a recently filed patent by Apple may reveal their next step for the game center, personal avatars.

The patent which was picked up by Patently Apple reveals Apples plan to let you have your very own avatar to customise to your likening and represent you in the iOS gaming world.

There’s no doubt Apple has big plans for its Game Center, and with really in depth games such as infinity blade 2 available there’s no doubt that Apple sees this as their route into the video gaming market, and not with a separate console such as an Xbox or Playstation.

After posting this article, 9to5mac received some inside info from a developer over twitter, revealing that avatars had actually been planned for iOS 4, but eventually postponed. So this is definitely something we can expect in the near future!

Furthermore with the Apple HDTV/ iTV coming up, you can bet yourself that it will have the Game Center as standard and encourage you to use it just as you would any other games console, so a lot of updates like this to the Game Center will be very much welcome.