Microsoft launches Free your Avatar

Export and share your Avatar with family and friends

15 December 2008 10:37 GMT / By Verity Burns

Microsoft has announced a new feature for Xbox Live that will allow you to export your avatar and share it with friends and family via email or social networking sites.

"Free your Avatar" will see a number of screensavers, wallpapers and festive cards added to the Xbox website to be used as backgrounds for your avatar.

Even better, the tool will enable more than one avatar to be placed on a background, allowing you to create avatar family portraits, scenes with your friends or Christmas cards with colleagues.

All you have to do to get started is log onto the Xbox website and enter your Gamertag to get your avatar's image.

Even if you haven't got one, you can still get involved in the fun by selecting from a gallery of pre-created avatars.

Xbox 360 will be celebrating the launch of "Free your Avatar" with a competition. Anyone creating a scene and setting it as their profile picture on social networking sites will automatically be entered, and the most creative will be given the chance to win a number of prizes, including an entertainment system and a personalised statue of their avatar.

For full terms and to get creating head over to the Xbox website.