Games

Xbox Getting Rid of Modern Avatar Feature

Published

1 minute ago

November 23, 2024

Christoph Rediske

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

Modern Xbox Avatar editor will be discontinued starting January 2025.
Users will be refunded if they made a purchase from November 23, 2023, to January 9, 2025.
Low engagement led to the decision to focus on different player experiences.

Microsoft has announced that the modern Xbox avatar editor feature will be discontinued starting in January 2025. Xbox’s Avatar feature is similar to Nintendo’s Miis. Xbox avatars are used as playable characters in various games like Kinect Sports, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD, and Sonic Free Riders, among others. The Avatar feature originally debuted on the Xbox 360 as part of a “New Play” experience update back in 2008, and has since been a consistent part of the brand’s identity.

In 2017, Microsoft announced a complete overhaul of its Avatar editor, giving greater customization options for players than before, as well as putting emphasis on diversity and inclusion. Some of the customization features introduced in the modern Xbox Avatar system include different clothing, physics, body types, and even props. The modern Xbox Avatar system launched in 2018, with the classic avatar system also being available for users who still have access to their Xbox 360, or even through a separate app on Microsoft’s Windows store. It appears that the modern Xbox Avatars Editor will soon be discontinued come 2025.

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As reported by PureXbox, the modern Xbox Avatars app will no longer be available starting on January 9, 2025. Any avatars created from this version of the system will be removed, along with any Xbox Avatar items that have been purchased. Xbox users who used the Xbox Avatar Editor app and made a purchase between November 23, 2023, through January 9, 2025, will be refunded automatically after its discontinuation.

When is Xbox Avatars Editor being discontinued?

January 9, 2025
Only Xbox Avatars Editor is being discontinued, not Xbox Original Avatars

According to Microsoft, the main reason this app is being discontinued is due to “low engagement with the program,” which allows Team Xbox to focus on other player experiences. The Xbox Avatars system isn’t going away entirely, however, as the Xbox Original Avatars app, the one based on the Xbox 360-era look and system, will still be available for gamers to use.

The Xbox Avatars system as a whole has mostly fallen out of use, as not many games in the Xbox library support the feature. Its main function is to decorate a player’s profile. However, the Xbox Original Avatars are still supported in games like Doritos Crash Course and A Kingdom of Keflings, which will seemingly continue to be used for the foreseeable future. If players want to use their Xbox Avatar as their primary gamerpic, they should do it before the modern Avatars feature is discontinued permanently in 2025.

Xbox Series X

Microsoft’s ninth-generation console, the Xbox Series X is a powerful machine that can support 4K resolution and 60 fps, depending on the game. Released alongside the Xbox Series S, the Series X has a Custom AMD Zen 2 CPU, a Custom RDNA 2 GPU, and 16 GB of RAM.