Due to “low engagement,” Xbox Avatars will be discontinued on January 9, 2025. Sadly, Microsoft’s attempts to bring the popular Xbox 360 feature back to the spotlight haven’t panned out, so the revised Avatar editor introduced to Xbox One in 2017 will be eliminated, although the Original Avatar editor will still be available for those of you still playing fantastic Xbox 360 games like Doritos Crash Course.Xbox Avatars will be dropped from Xbox and PC in 2025As announced via Xbox Support, the Xbox Avatar Editor app will be discontinued next year, and players will no longer be able to edit or see their Avatars. “This will not affect the Xbox Original Avatars,” Microsoft says. “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.”The move will only affect the new Avatars, which you’ll no longer be able to see on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC after January 9. If you have purchased any Avatar items from the Microsoft Store between November 1, 2023, and the closure on January 9, 2025, Microsoft says you’ll be “refunded to your valid payment instrument after the Xbox Avatar Editor app is no longer available.” Purchases made before November 2023 won’t be refunded by the sound of it.”Microsoft is dedicated to delivering great experiences for players, including a variety of options to personalize their gaming experience with Xbox,” Microsoft says. “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.”Tom’s Take — It was only a matter of time until this classic Xbox 360 feature was dropped entirelyXbox Avatars were introduced in 2007 during the glory days of the Xbox 360, and at the time, they were front and center of our gaming profiles. Swiping through our friends lists revealed Avatars sleeping if players were offline, and others pulling various poses in front of a plethora of backgrounds when your friends were online.Some games rewarded Avatar items for unlocking particular Xbox achievements, leading to Avatar customizations being a main theme of Xbox gaming. Sadly, when the Xbox One arrived, Microsoft discontinued the system as it attempted to make Xbox a media center instead of a dedicated gaming machine. We all know how that panned out, and in 2017 Avatars returned with a complete facelift.Unfortunately, while it was great to see Avatars return, they have become redundant. Gamerpics have taken the spotlight, and the dynamic friend lists are long gone — I really would have liked that to return. We are now in an era of clean UIs and minimal navigation, so it comes as no surprise that Microsoft will be dropping support for the once glorious feature. While Avatars are being phased out, Microsoft recently revived another long-lost Xbox 360 feature: friend requests. Will you miss Xbox Avatars on new consoles? Let us know in the comments, TrueAchievements community!
Source link
