One such difference is the limitations Microsoft places on the way we can express ourselves on Xbox Live. When it comes to avatar pictures, we've only ever been able to use a limited set of pre-defined images. Some are abstract art pics, while others represent various video game franchises. We have a little bit of extra control when it comes to using our own 3D Avatars to create posed gamer pics, but even then, it's a far cry from other social networks, perhaps most notably Steam.
Twitch, Beam, Facebook, Twitter, practically every social network on Earth allows us to upload our own avatar pictures for our profiles, and soon, maybe Xbox will too.
In a Twitter exchange (via ICXM), Xbox platform lead Mike Ybarra noted that the team is "looking into" bringing custom gamer pics to Xbox One.
@OfficialAidenP @THEEDGE1970 We're looking into it.@OfficialAidenP @THEEDGE1970 We're looking into it.— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) December 15, 2016December 15, 2016
If Beam and Xbox Live are to be closely integrated, allowing us to use avatars on one profile but not the other makes little sense. And with the advent of Xbox Live Clubs, it's a little annoying not being able to use our Windows Central logo in our own official Club, for example.
I for one hope that Microsoft will decide to give us access to this pretty standard social feature in the future, especially considering it has thousands of upvotes on the Xbox Uservoice feedback page.
