Do you find yourself fancying a new Xbox Live gamertag now that you’ve perhaps gotten sick of, or outgrown your current one? If so, then this may be your lucky week, as Microsoft has announced that it will be ‘recycling’ almost one million old usernames starting tomorrow.
In a post on the Xbox Wire, the company revealed that it will re-release this wealth of old gamertags to the public over a 24-hour period on Wednesday, May 18th. These aren’t just your run of the mill tags, either, as they happen to be from the original Xbox era when every possible option was available. Going further, it’s also been stated that these account names were never migrated to the Xbox 360, and have been inactive for quite some time.
“Starting on Wednesday, May 18th @ 11:00AM PST, we will begin releasing nearly one million Gamertags to our valued Xbox Live Gold customers with active subscriptions and at least 1 year of cumulative Xbox Live Gold tenure. These Gamertags will be released over a 24-hour period, to give our fans in various countries an equal chance to get one,” reads the Xbox Wire post.
It continues to say:
While it may be challenging to find the exact Gamertag you want, keep trying, as there are many great Gamertags that will be released. Although we can’t share the actual list, we can tell you that many of the available Gamertags are in the following categories:
Proper Names
Pop culture references (Entertainment, sports, gaming)
Types of Food
Geography and Travel
Science and Technology
Math and Numbers
Animals
Some of the greatest inventions of all time
You can join in, and attempt to change your old and stale gamertag to one of these recycled options through your Xbox One, the Xbox App on Windows 10 and Xbox.com. Be advised that you will not be able to do this through your Xbox 360 console, and that changing your gamertag will not get rid of your achievements, saves or anything of that ilk.