Xbox Live Now Lets You Choose Any Gamertag, Even If It’s Taken

Xbox Live (Image: Xbox)

Back at E3, Microsoft announced some big changes regarding to gamertags on Xbox Live.

As of June, players on Xbox One can choose any gamertag you want, even if it’s already taken. If you want to use a gamertag that’s alreayd taken, Xbox will auto-generate and ID suffix of numbers after an # symbol.

If you wanted your tag to just be your name even though it’s already “taken” you can now. For example, the gamertag “Brandon” would most likely become something like “Brandon#492.” The suffix font size is smaller and the color is different, so the name in particular will stand out.

These changes are seemingly inspired by similar systems that utilize usernames in a similar way, ie Battle.net and Discord. It is important to note that this is a new option. Existing gamertags will remain intact and no one will be able to take your exact name unless you change it.

It’s also worth mentioning that Microsoft’s code of conduct still applies to the new gamertag system, so you won’t be allowed to use hate speech or other offending terms. There is a max character limit of 12.

The first gamertag name change is free, and you can do that on Microsoft’s website here. Players will see their new name on the dashboard immediately, but any new title you choose won’t show up in games until 2020

If you’re looking to change your gamertag, there are many more options than there used to be. Gamertags now support more alphabets to work with more than 200 languages from around the world.

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These updates come during the first public trials of Microsoft’s new game streaming platform, xCloud. Additionally, Microsoft will release a next-generation console, Project Scarlett, in 2020 with Halo Infinite as a launch title.