Microsoft Updating Xbox Gamertags to Allow Repeated Names, Additional Character Scripts

Microsoft announced during the E3 2019 Inside Xbox episode that some major changes were coming to the way Xbox Gamertags work.

The change announcement was that over the next few months, the company will begin updating its Gamertag system to allow additional character scripts. According to Major Nelson, who broke the news during the stream, this means that Gamertags will eventually recognize over 200 languages, meaning you can change your Gamertag to match your language.

The second announcement made fundamentally changes the way Gamertags work by allowing Gamertags to be repeated in the Xbox ecosystem. Specifically, there can now be two, three, four or theoretically, an infinite number of MajorNelsons on Xbox Live.

Now, don’t fear — the original title holder will always be the original. To differentiate between the original title holder and the repeated names, Microsoft will add a three or four digit suffix.

According to Major Nelson during the stream, his Gamertag will always read MajorNelson with no numbered suffix. If someone were to make their tag the same, it would read MajorNelson with an automatically assigned suffix.

There was no release date or release window given for these announcements, but Major Nelson did specifically say “over the next few months,” so we expect to see the Gamertag system updated within three to four months.

Check out the announcement for yourself below:

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