Avatars are nothing new, and we’ve seen them featured across a wide range of services. Microsoft revamped its avatar offering with the release of the Xbox Series X/S platforms. Essentially, the revamp gave players more freedom to customize their avatars and dress them up with a plethora of items. However, that feature is soon coming to an end as Microsoft revealed that the application used to create these avatars did not get enough engagement to keep it running next year.
The Xbox support website announced the Xbox Avatar Editor application to be shut down on January 9, 2025. This means you can say goodbye to your customized avatars, but you will still have access to the Xbox Original Avatar app. As noted on the official Xbox support website, due to low engagement, the service will be shut down to allow teams to focus on delivering other great experiences for players.
As mentioned, the Xbox Original Avatars will remain available, and players can continue to tweak them as they see fit. Meanwhile, those who recently made purchases for their Xbox Avatar will see refunds go to their accounts. It’s noted that these purchases will be refunded from November 1, 2023, through January 9, 2025.
So, while it’s bitter news to hear your custom avatars will be gone, it’s at least nice knowing that you can still use the Xbox Original Avatars, which were first introduced to players on the Xbox 360 back in 2008. You just need to use the Xbox Original Avatars app to make changes.
In other news regarding the Xbox brand, we recently learned that the next big Xbox Game Pass release, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, will be the longest title worked on for MachineGames. Furthermore, Xbox Game Pass has a new beta out that allows players to stream select owned games not directly featured on the subscription service.
