(REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)
Are you bored with or embarrased by your Xbox gamertag? Well, listen up. Microsoft this week is giving you the chance to change things up.
Starting Wednesday, Xbox Live Gold customers with active subscriptions and at least one year of Gold tenure can switch their gamertag to one of nearly 1 million monikers being released in the wild.
"Many of the best and most desirable Gamertags were unavailable…until now," Microsoft explained in a blog post. The gamertags being released this week "are from the original Xbox era." The "accounts never migrated to Xbox 360 and as a result they have been inactive for quite some time."
Xbox gamertags are the lifeblood of gaming on an Xbox. They are used to identify a person, help people find friends, and track statistics. However, Microsoft has been catching some grief over the last few years for not allowing users to sign up with certain names that should be available. The company said in its blog post that it "listened" to its customers' feedback, prompting this week's release.
Although Microsoft didn't say what the new gamertags will be, they will include:
- 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
Once a gamertag has been changed, all of a person's current data, including Gamerscore, Achievements, and Friends list will be ported to the new gamertag.
Microsoft will start rolling out the new gamertags at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Users will be able to make the change online at Xbox.com, or via the Xbox app on Windows 10 or the Xbox One.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
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