Xbox has changed the way gamertags work.
Anyone will now be able to get any name, even if it is already taken. The system will instead append a long suffix of numbers after it, meaning that various people can have the same main gamertag.
And, as part of the change, every user will be given the opportunity to change their name once. Such changes usually cost $9.99, giving people a rare opportunity to fix any names they have come to regret or have grown out of for free.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
From
15p
€0.18
$0.18
USD 0.27
a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
The changes come as part of a major technical overhaul of the way the gamertag system works. As well as allowing for people to more easily choose names, the system will now support a vast array of alphabets, meaning that it can support more than 200 languages.
For anyone who wants to keep their existing gamertag, the system will change nothing. Everyone will get to use the same name and they will not look any different, and no action is required.
But the new system means that if someone does want to change their name, they can do so for a name that is already used. It will show up with a suffix and a long number written after it: if someone wanted the name Gamertag but somebody already had it, for instance, they might become Gamertag#1324.
The suffix will be written smaller than the main name, and so will not clog up leaderboards. It is used only to differentiate people with the same gamertag.
If only one person has any given gamertag then it will still not show up. The suffix is automatically generated and its length will be four digits by default but depends on how many people want any given name.
Xbox said it had made the change to allow players “to express themselves proudly in their native language” and “to empower players around the world with more choice in how they represent themselves”. The new system will allow for a variety of alphabets as well as identical names.
To allow people to take advantage of the new system, players will be given the opportunity to change their name once for free, even if they have done so numerous times in the past. Every future change will then cost $9.99.
All of the same rules that ban offensive or rude gamertags will stay in place, Microsoft said.
The new update will arrive with a system update later this year. “As we transition our gamertag system it will take time to update all experiences,” Microsoft said.
