Minecraft console builds get free female avatar skin

Minecraft players can now choose between male and female avatars, even if they've never purchased a skin pack.

Minecraft ships with one default skin, fondly known as Steve.

Players can change their in-game appearance with optional skin DLC packs, but that's not a very good message to send to the world - that players are men by default, and women need to jump through hoops to see themselves represented in-game.

Mojang and 4J Studios have elected to change that, by releasing the Alex skin free to all console owners of Minecraft. The skin will be added in an update releasing this Wednesday (or whenever your local console network update rolls out this week).

"Everyone loves Steve – he’s probably the most famous minecrafter in the world, and has excellent stubble," Mojang said in a blog post.

"But jolly old Steve doesn’t really represent the diversity of our playerbase. For that reason, we’re giving all players opportunity to play with an Alex skin instead."

By the way, the PC and Mac version of Minecraft doesn't let you change skins direct from the game menu; you need to upload a skin as an image file to your Mojang profile.

As Sherif noted earlier today, Monjang is also releasing a The Simpsons skin DLC pack for PlayStation owners.