Avatar (Xbox Live)

Xbox Avatars app, showing a user changing the hair style of an Avatar on Xbox One

Xbox Live Avatars (also known as XLA's) are avatars and characters that represent users of the Xbox Live service on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles, Windows 10, and Windows 10 Mobile.^[1] Avatars debuted on the Xbox 360 as part of the "New Xbox Experience" system update released on November 19, 2008.

Users are able to customize body shape, gender, facial features, hair style, clothing, and "props".^[2] They can then display a 2D picture of their Avatar on their Gamercard (although they are still free to use their previous picture should they so choose).^[3]

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).^[4] 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.^[5]

Users can edit their avatar using the Xbox Avatars application on an Xbox console, Windows 10 or Windows 10 Mobile device^[6] 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.

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 amputees and gender neutral clothing. The new avatar system will be released in late 2017.^[7]

List of games using Avatars

This is a list of games on the Xbox 360 video game console (both retail and Xbox Live Arcade games) that use Avatars. Some games (marked with an asterisk) 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.^[8] There are currently 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.

Avatar Store

Xbox Avatars app, showing the welcome page of the Avatar Store on Windows 10

The Avatar Store was launched as "Avatar Marketplace" on August 11, 2009, allowing users to buy clothes and props using their Xbox Live account.^[11] Users are able to buy branded clothing, such as Adidas, for their Avatar, as well as game-related clothing, such as costumes from Monkey Island, BioShock 2, Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Halo, Splinter Cell Conviction and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. A player can also update their Avatar's wardrobe by achieving certain goals and unlocking different clothing. New clothes and items are added to the Avatar Marketplace every Thursday.

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. These articles in question were based mainly around Halo, various T-shirts, shorts, hats and even full-body suit costumes were seen not only being worn by current Avatars but also in Avatar Store demonstration pictures and videos. The people who had access to these also were spotted to have a mysterious achievement in their profile named 'Xbox 360 Beta' and was orange in color with a Beta symbol and the number 09 – it was concluded that they were actually beta testing the new Avatar Marketplace.^[12] Most recently, Xbox users that were a part of the Xbox Preview Program were given a special prop featuring a cat dressed line a ninja and riding a T-Rex for use with their Xbox Avatar.^[13]

In addition to clothing, the Avatar Store also has animated props available for purchase. 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. Most recently, Xbox users that participated in the Xbox One Preview Program were given a specially created prop that showcased a cat dressed as a ninja riding a T-Rex that they could equip to their Xbox Avatar.^[13]

Starting with the 1511 release of Windows 10 and New Xbox One Experience the Avatar Store has returned to the Xbox Avatars application, allow users to browse new clothing and props in real time.^[14] Purchases made from the latest version of the Avatar Store will work on every Xbox experience including Xbox 360.

Avatar Awards

Some games allow players to unlock clothing for their avatars by meeting certain conditions such as unlocking the required achievement. Games that currently award Avatar Awards are listed below. This feature is discontinued from Xbox One since the avatars on Xbox One does not support Avatar Awards anymore as of June 1, 2016.

* = The game has avatar awards which are linked to certain achievements in another game. (e.g. All the awards in Halo Waypoint needs certain achievements unlocked in Halo: Reach, except for the Halo: Reach Beta shirt which is no longer obtainable.)

† = The game has achievements which can be used in another game to unlock avatar awards from there (e.g. a number of the achievements in Halo 3, ODST and Reach can be used in Halo Waypoint to unlock avatar awards)

⚥ = The game has avatar awards in a game which looks different depending on the avatar's gender. e.g. The Recon helmet avatar award from Halo Waypoint is in two different color schemes (Red for males and Dare's [from Halo 3: ODST] white Recon Helmet for females.)

Technical details

Xbox Avatars app, showing a user taking a Gamerpic for their Xbox Live profile on Windows 10

Avatars are a collection of data, less than 1 kB,^[15] describing character details such as clothing and facial features, propagated to Xbox.com. These avatars can be as personalized as the player wants them to be, detailing all the way down to the size. However, players can also create an avatar that does not represent them at all. Like a roaming user profile the Avatar will follow the player wherever he or she logs on. This makes the avatar the actual player in the virtual world.

The Xbox 360 System Software includes a renderer and animation system that creates Avatars as they are seen in Microsoft's own titles. It is also possible for developers to use the data and process it with their own software, allowing Avatars to be easily integrated with a game's engine.

Developers are able to use the data to create random Avatars to populate their game, or to create specific Avatars for specific roles.

Avatar bodies are animated using skeletal animation, whereas Avatar faces are animated by changing the eye and mouth textures.^[3]

Microsoft has posted a comprehensive look at the technical details behind the Xbox Live Avatar system on their engineering blog.^[16]

Avatar images are available for use on Internet forums, social network services, as an email signature, or on a blog. They can be accessed by using the following user-specific URLs (replacing GAMERTAG with the Xbox Live Gamertag):^[17]

• Full Avatar: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatar-body.png
• Posing Full Avatar: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatarpic-xl.png 1080x1080
• Large icon/gamer picture: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatarpic-l.png
• Small icon/gamer picture: http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatarpic-s.png

See also

Avatars

• Mii

Avatar worlds

• Miiverse
• PlayStation Home
• PlayStation Room
• Second Life
• IMVU
• OLIVE
• Active Worlds

References

External links

• Official Site
• Free Your Avatar: Official Custom Images Site
• Awards you can win for your Avatar
• Celebrity Avatar lookalike