Microsoft has quietly announced the end of an era, with the Xbox Avatar Editor going away early next year. "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," the company wrote in its FAQ about the feature.
The latest approach to personalizing avatars launched in 2018. The Xbox Avatar Editor allowed players to customize cartoon versions of themselves with both a free and purchased library of cosmetics. The options gave a lot of room for diversity and personal expression, so that you really could create a clear likeness of yourself, or whatever self you wanted to show to the Xbox community. Microsoft said it will refund players for Xbox Avatar Editor purchases made between November 1, 2023 and the app's end date.
Microsoft introduced avatars to player accounts back in the Xbox 360 era. These Xbox Original Avatars will not be impacted by the editor app's departure; they'll continue to appear for players using those old school images as well as on Xbox 360 hardware.
If you created an avatar that you want to preserve as your profile photo on the Xbox into the future, you can use the Avatar Editor app until the shutdown date to save a picture to your account. The Xbox support forums have a full explainer on how to create or upload your profile photo.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/microsoft-is-taking-away-the-xbox-avatar-editor-233712034.html?src=rss
