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Microsoft's Xbox Live avatars let boys wear dresses if they want

Microsoft is set to upgrade its Xbox Live Avatars to allow more customization, including the ability to wear any clothes irrespective of the character's gender.

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Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
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Ty Pendlebury
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GameSpot

Microsoft is upgrading its customizable character system for Xbox Live to the new " Avatars 2.0," the company announced Tuesday at the E3 trade show.

The company says that the entire avatar creator has been rebuilt in the Unity engine and now supports a higher level of customization. The new system won't restrict players to wearing clothing based on the character's gender.

"Avatars are meant for whatever you want your digital self to represent. We don't want to put you in a box, there are no more checkboxes, no matter what you think you look like or what you want to present online," said Bryan Saftler, a lead product manager at Xbox.

Statler said that the new system aims to better integrate items such as clothing and mounts, and allow more developers to use the avatars in their games.

The new system will be released this fall for Windows 10 and Xbox One. A new version of the console, the Xbox One X, arrives on November 7.

Via GameSpot