Xbox avatars will get wheelchair option

Xbox Avatars will soon be able to use wheelchairs, Microsoft has revealed.

Writing on Twitter, Xbox chief Phil Spencer and platform boss Mike Ybarra have confirmed that it had heard the requests of real-life wheelchair users for a way to reflect themselves digitally.

The below images show how the avatars will look - and there's a noticeable change in the design of the avatar's faces too, reflecting an as-yet unannounced visual upgrade.

Avatars were introduced on Xbox 360, and were originally developed by Kinect Sports studio Rare. A fan-favourite part of the Xbox 360 dashboard, the animated characters were left out of the original Xbox One design.

But avatars have now returned on Xbox One, and are especially prominent on the Windows 10 Xbox App - likely the product of a small team Microsoft hired internally back in January 2015 to update the characters with new graphics and features.