Xbox is killing off one of its longest features: Avatars. Xbox is one of the pioneers in online console gaming. While it’s far from the first to have an online gaming service, Xbox really cracked the code with the original Xbox and cemented it with Xbox 360. Xbox Live debuted a year after the original Xbox’s launch, allowing players to play all kinds of games online with a microphone and a friends list so players could keep up with their fellow players. It was a revolutionary feature at the time as home internet was becoming more accessible and better to use, allowing Xbox to really separate itself from PlayStation 2 which also had its own online features, but not to the degree of Xbox’s.
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Xbox 360 really changed gaming forever with a new iteration of Xbox Live. Players could create party chats to talk with their friends who were playing other games or wanted to talk privately, download games and other content straight to their Xbox, watch movies, and much more. It also opened up a whole degree of customization with gamer pictures, themes, and avatars. Avatars were introduced in 2008 and allowed players to make a digital character that could show up on their profile and even in some video games like 1 vs 100. Players could even watch Netflix with each other and their Avatars would sit in a virtual theater with each other. Even better was the fact that you could buy items for your Avatar based on games, so you could dress up as your favorite characters or rock merchandise from them.
Sadly, Avatars sort of took a backseat with the Xbox One and Xbox Series X. They only show up when you look at your full profile and are otherwise unseen. The Avatar marketplace also dried up a bit as they weren’t featured as much across the Xbox ecosystem. There was a new Avatar editor released with a more in-depth Avatar creator, but it doesn’t seem like it was cared about much. A once loved feature became essentially buried and now, it will unfortunately be partially killed off.
Xbox has announced (via PureXbox) that it is shutting down the Xbox Avatar Editor on January 9th, 2025. Along with that will be the death of any of these new 3D avatars created during that time and any items for them. Anyone who purchased items for these avatars after November 1st, 2023 will be automatically refunded. Xbox noted it is shutting down this app and version of Avatars because of “low engagement”, but players can still use the Xbox 360-era Avatars instead. You can click here to view an FAQ about the matter and see the full reason for Xbox killing off the Xbox Avatar Editor below.
“Microsoft is dedicated to delivering great experiences for players, including a variety of options to personalize their gaming experience with Xbox. Due to low engagement and our shift in focus towards delivering other player experiences, the Xbox Avatar Editor app will no longer be available starting on January 9, 2025. Players can still personalize their gaming experience with dynamic backgrounds and profile colors on Xbox consoles, and with Xbox Original Avatars, profile themes, and gamerpics on Xbox consoles and PCs.”
At least players can still have some kind of Avatar for the foreseeable future. It’s a bit sad to see such a notable feature getting shutdown, especially in the age of custom in-game avatars. Call of Duty, Fortnite, Roblox, and many other games thrive off of letting players have tons of skins that they can purchase and customize. It seems strange that Xbox has done so little to utilize Avatars in an era where they would probably be more popular than ever. Whether or not Xbox will ever bring Avatars back in a notable capacity remains to be seen, it seems fairly unlikely at this rate, but maybe they’ll tap into a more metaverse-style ecosystem that would better utilize Avatars in the future.
