Microsoft will free up 1 million Xbox gamertags this week
If you've been hankering for a new gamertag, you'll be able to select from over 1 million old names from abandoned accounts.
Have you been coveting an Xbox Live gamertag that someone else happened to nab before you years ago? You may well be able to claim it yet as of May 18th, when Microsoft plans to release a million different gamertags from "abandoned" accounts.
Beginning Wednesday, any Xbox Live Gold member with a year's worth of Gold status since 2002 can pounce on one of these freed-up accounts. The first wave of accounts will be up for grabs on 11 AM PT/2 PM ET and staggered over a period of 24 hours to allow gamers in various countries an "equal chance" to snag one.
You can head to this particular Xbox.com page to prepare yourself for the great gamertag commencement, but if you've already changed your gamertag before once for free, it's going to cost a small fee to change your gamertag again here, and every subsequent time after that. If it's worth assuming an identity that feels right to you after potentially having to wait a few years to grab the perfect one, then see if you can jump in and take what's rightfully yours.
Microsoft won't be publishing the list of available gamertags, so you'll need to ready yourself for a whole lot of guesswork.
