Xbox Avatar


Xbox Avatars are avatars and characters that represent users of the Xbox network on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S video game consoles, Windows 10, and Windows 10 Mobile.
Avatars originally debuted on the Xbox 360 as part of the "New Xbox Experience" system update released on November 19, 2008, updated on Xbox One with "New Xbox One Experience" Xbox One System Software on November 12, 2015, and reimagined with the release of the next generation character for Xbox One on October 11, 2018.

History of Xbox Original Avatar

Xbox 360 users are able to customize body shape, sex, facial features, hair style, clothing, and "props". They can then display a 2D picture of their Avatar on their Gamercard.
Xbox Live GM Ben Kilgore stated in 2008 that Avatars will only be available for games that have an E10+ rating or lower only. This may change sometime in the future, though presumably in Microsoft's own games if it ever happens, to monitor their usage in mature games. It was announced at Game Developers Conference on March 24, 2009, that the XNA framework 3.1 would have an API to support Avatars in indie games. With the release of Windows 10 and the New Xbox One Experience, the rendering of the Avatars has been changed to offer a higher quality of rendering across different devices.
Users can edit their current avatar using the Xbox Original Avatars application on an Xbox console, Windows 10 or Windows 10 Mobile device or by using the Microsoft Silverlight based editor on Xbox.com. Across all of these experiences, users will have access to their entire closet of items that they've purchased or have been awarded throughout the Xbox ecosystem.
The Original Avatar Store was shut down on July 29, 2024.

The "Next generation" Avatar

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. On June 18, 2018, the Xbox Avatar Editor beta – leveraging the Unity engine – arrived to Xbox Insiders, then on August 8, Microsoft released a Q&A on some of the ways how the new Avatars will be displayed on the Xbox One Dashboard, and as of August 16, the new Avatar Xbox Editor beta arrived for Windows 10 testers. and were officially released for all Xbox Live users on October 11, 2018.
For users that have content from their Xbox 360 account, while the new character cannot support the past generation's assets, a backward compatibility mode is available for customers that want to use their existing content. By selecting "Xbox Original Avatar" from the main menu of the Editor, customers can import their entire Xbox 360-era character and use that to represent themselves across the Xbox One Dashboard. Users can continue to leverage their entire Xbox Original Avatar closet using the original app and importing their changes using the Editor, when they want to share a change.
As of the 1811 release, the Xbox Avatar Editor's built-in Closet includes 566 items enabling 142.67 x 10^33 different characters for customers creating an Avatar, which does not take color changing options into account. There is also an Xbox Avatar Store that allows customers to browse and try on new items as they are released to the public.
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." Avatar purchases made between November 1, 2023 to January 9, 2025 will be automatically refunded. The Xbox Original Avatar Editor will not be affected and will remain available, although the Original Avatar Store was previously shut down on July 29, 2024.

List of Xbox 360 games using Xbox Original Avatars

This is a list of games on the Xbox 360 video game console that use Avatars. Some games get updated to support Avatars when the user updates to the New Xbox Experience dashboard. The player must be signed into Xbox Live to receive the game update for those games. There are no Xbox One games that support Avatars, although some Xbox 360 games that did support them were made backwards compatible for the Xbox One.
– This color indicates that the game is no longer available for download.

– This color indicates Xbox 360 games that are compatible with Xbox One.
TitleDeveloperPublisherGenre
1 vs. 100MicrosoftMicrosoft Game StudiosGame show
A Kingdom for KeflingsNinjaBeeNinjaBeeStrategy game
A World of KeflingsNinjaBeeNinjaBeeStrategy game
Age of BootyCertain AffinityCapcomReal-time strategy
Baby Maker ExtremeStegersaurus GamesMicrosoft Game StudiosPuzzle
Band HeroNeversoftActivisionMusic
Band of BugsNinjaBeeNinjaBeeTurn-based tactics
BlurActivisionActivisionRacing
Bomberman Live*Backbone EntertainmentHudson SoftPuzzle
Brain Challenge*GameloftGameloftPuzzle
Bust-a-Move Live!TaitoTaitoPuzzle
Colin McRae: Dirt 2CodemastersCodemastersRacing
CastleMinerDigitalDNA GamesDigitalDNA GamesSandbox game
CastleMiner ZDigitalDNA GamesDigitalDNA GamesSurvival
CastleMiner WarfareDigitalDNA GamesDigitalDNA GamesShooter
Dirt 3CodemastersCodemastersRacing
DJ Hero 2FreeStyleGamesActivisionMusic
Doritos Crash CourseWanako Games/Behaviour InteractiveMicrosoft Game StudiosPlatform game
Doritos Crash Course 2Behaviour SantiagoMicrosoft Game StudiosPlatform game
F1 Race StarsCodemastersMicrosoft Game StudiosRacing game
Full House PokerMicrosoftMicrosoft Game StudiosCard game
Guitar Hero 5NeversoftActivisionMusic
Guitar Hero: Warriors of RockNeversoftActivisionMusic
Hardwood Hearts*Silver Creek EntertainmentSilver Creek EntertainmentCard game
Hardwood Spades*Silver Creek EntertainmentSilver Creek EntertainmentCard game
Hasbro Family Game Night 2EA Bright LightElectronic ArtsFamily games
Hasbro Family Game Night 3EA Bright LightElectronic ArtsFamily games
Hasbro Family Game Night 4: The Game ShowWahoo StudiosElectronic ArtsFamily games
Kinect Joy RideBigParkMicrosoft Game StudiosRacing
Kinect SportsRareMicrosoft Game StudiosSports
Kinect Sports: Season TwoRare/BigParkMicrosoft StudiosSports
Lazy RaidersSarbakanMicrosoft Game StudiosAction/Puzzle
Lips: Number One HitsiNiSMicrosoft Game StudiosKaraoke
Madballs in Babo: InvasionPlaybrainsMicrosoft Game StudiosTop-down shooter
Motocross MadnessBongfishMicrosoft Game StudiosRacing game
The Path of GoMicrosoftMicrosoft Game StudiosStrategy game
Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure!TaitoTaito/Square EnixPlatform game
Scene It? Box Office SmashKrome Studios/Screenlife GamesMicrosoft Game StudiosGame show
Small Arms*Gastronaut StudiosMicrosoft Game StudiosFighting game
Snoopy Flying AceSmart Bomb InteractiveMicrosoft Game StudiosAction, Arcade flight
Sonic & Sega All-Stars RacingSumo DigitalSegaRacing
Sonic & All-Stars Racing TransformedSumo DigitalSegaRacing
Sonic Free RidersSonic TeamSegaRacing
Texas Cheat 'em!Wideload GamesD3 PublisherCard game
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HDRobomodoActivisionSports
Uno*Carbonated GamesMicrosoft Game StudiosCard game
Uno RushCarbonated GamesMicrosoft Game StudiosCard game
Wipeout in the ZoneBehaviour SantiagoActivisionSports game
World Series of Poker: Full House ProPipeworks SoftwareMicrosoft Game StudiosCard game
Worms 2: ArmageddonTeam17Team17Strategy game