Conrtrary to the big splashy announcement it made back in2016 about the future of inclusive Xbox Avatars, Microsoft is now quietly sunsetting the entire effort a little under two months from now.
Microsoft made a big ta-do about its refreshed Xbox Avatar platform that would usher in higher fidelity avatars with expanded customizations and animations to better represent gamers. In 2018, the long-awaited new Xbox Avatars showed up and were indeed an upgrade comparatively to the versions from the Xbox 360 era, offering new customizations such accessibility identifiers, granular body image representation and additional accessories.
Unfortunately, Microsoft not only took two years to deliver after its grand announcement, but it did very little to promote usage of avatars throughout the Xbox platform after their release which presumably why the company is walking back the effort.
In a recently released support document, Microsoft highlights January 9, 2025, as the end of its updated Xbox avatar endeavor. In a little over five weeks from now, Microsoft plans to shut down both the updated Xbox Avatar platform as well as the accompanying Editor App. The closure of the Xbox Avatars will affect users across both PC and consoles alike, according to Microsoft.
Starting January 9, 2025, the Xbox Avatar Editor app will no longer be available. This means players will no longer be able to access the Xbox Avatar Editor app on Xbox consoles or PCs, including their Xbox Avatars and any purchased avatar items. This will not affect the Xbox Original Avatars, as these will continue to work in supported Xbox 360 games, and you will still be able to edit your Xbox Original Avatars inside the Xbox Original Avatars app on Xbox consoles and Windows devices.
Xbox Team
In breakdown of the accompanying FAQ, the Xbox team covers other sunsetting details for the Xbox Avatars such as, purchases made from November 1, 2023 through January 9, 2025, will be refunded to their valid payment instrument when the Xbox Avatar Editor disappears.
If you think you can memorialize your avatar through January 9, 2025, buy grabbing some last-minute customizations, do not. Microsoft clearly states that users will no longer see their Xbox Avatar on the profile page after January 9, 2025. Gamer pics, however, can still be customized but will need to be done through the Xbox Original Avatars App which harkens back to the Xbox 360-era avatars and will allow users to take photos, adjust animations and background.
Somehow, Microsoft has found it in their hearts to spare the Xbox avatars from 2008, and they are unharmed by Microsoft’s “shift in focus towards delivering other player experiences.”
Microsoft cites “low engagement” as part of the reason it is getting rid of avatars, and it should come as no surprise to most Xbox users, because the company dropped the ball on the entire effort.
Xbox Avatars and their customizations are hidden away through various layers of abstraction and are rarely featured anywhere in the Home UI of the Xbox or gamers. In addition to the few developer partnerships delivering accessories to highlight achievements, seasonal bonuses or court additional engagement, the customization items in the Avatar store were also just too expensive.
In an age of Apple’s Memojis, online profiles, and AI-generated user pics, this is yet another instance of Microsoft dropping the ball on what could have been a unique selling point for the brand. Microsoft could have leveraged its Xbox Avatars to represent users across their integrated stack of Microsoft 365, Office 365, Teams, Azure, or Windows accounts and services.
For fans of the revised Xbox Avatars, it looks like you have about five weeks to preserve your masterpieces of digital representation through photos, videos, and gifs before the fun comes to an end.
