Xbox Avatar

[3] On June 13, 2017, during E3 2017, Microsoft announced a complete overhaul of the Avatars, providing a much greater emphasis of customization and inclusiveness, especially by adding limb customization, clothing that supported all characters – as the old system had different clothing for male and female body types – and support for changing asset color at runtime.

Other customization includes cloth and hair that are impacted by physics, fourteen different body types with 20 height options, and Moods and Props that are never "put away" when displaying an Avatar.

The new Avatar system was delayed originally slated to release in the Fall 2017 but continued to be active in development through 2018.

[8] On November 22, 2024, Microsoft announced that the "Next generation" Avatar Editor would be discontinued on January 9, 2025 due to "low engagement with the program."

[9][10] Xbox 360 users are able to customize body shape, sex, facial features, hair style, clothing, and "props".

[13] Xbox Live GM Ben Kilgore stated in 2008 that Avatars will only be available for games that have an E10+ rating or lower only (featuring content that is considered suitable for children under 10 years of age).

As of late June 2009, various themed clothing articles were spotted in use by various members of the Xbox 360 community – namely those who work for Microsoft.

Avatars can interact with these props, which include a remote control vibrating Warthogs from Halo, Lightsabers from Star Wars, footballs, skateboards, pets, and even pom-poms.

According to Major Nelson (Director of Programming for the Microsoft gaming network Xbox Live), those who attended the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2009 were eligible for a special E3 Trophy prop when the Avatar Marketplace actually hits – however to be in with a chance you had to have visited a special stand that was present at the conference.

Avatars are a collection of data, less than 1 kB,[26] describing character details such as clothing and facial features, propagated to Xbox.com.

[13] Microsoft has posted a comprehensive look at the technical details behind the Xbox Live Avatar system on their engineering blog.

[27] Avatar images are available for use on Internet forums, social network services, as an email signature, or on a blog.