Xbox Live Avatar

An Xbox Live Avatar is used in the Xbox Live service accessed with some models of Xbox game consoles, controling a player's appearance when participating in multi-player games. The avatars are stored on Microsoft's servers, allowing them to be accessed from multiple locations on consoles or with avatar editors on other computers and devices.

Avatar files are actually just lists of character attributes (taking less than 1 kilobyte), with the actual graphics rendered by the Xbox software using various images and algorithms found elsewhere in Microsoft's systems.

Some avatar enhancements such as clothing are offered for purchase.

Format info

 * Microsoft engineering blog discussion (Internet Archive copy)

Tools

 * Official in-browser avatar editor (requires Microsoft Silverlight)
 * Avatar widget for Android; puts avatar on your home screen

Other links

 * Wikipedia article
 * Avatar customization store