According to some information I've received over the past few months, Microsoft is working on a broad update to its Xbox Live social systems, with noteworthy changes coming to Xbox Live profiles, with new options for Xbox Live gamertags.

The biggest of these changes that we know about is the way Gamertags are offered on Xbox Live. Right now, you choose a unique Gamertag name comprised of numbers, characters, and single spaces. You can pay a small fee to change your Gamertag, which is then reflected across Xbox Live across all of your games and social interactions. This system will remain in place, but to get users into Xbox Live faster, duplicated Gamertags will receive a # code at the end, similarly to Discord and Battle.net

New duplicated Xbox Gamertags will offer a format more familiar to users of Battle.net and Discord.

According to our sources, Xbox Gamertags will get an option more familiar to users of Battle.net and Discord, allowing you to quickly sign up with any name you wish. We've heard that your unique Gamertag will remain your primary identifier across all Xbox games and services, with your Microsoft Account display name being sharable as an option.

My Gamertag right now is "Jez," for example, on Xbox Live, another user could take it too, but they might be Jez#1232, Jez#4231, Jez#6542, and so on. In games that don't support the new Gamertag system, such as older ones, your "Jez#0192" numbered username will just appear as "Jez0192," without the hash, or the display name.

It's important to note that you will not lose your existing Gamertag, and you won't need to use a # code if you come up with a truly unique gamertag. The # code is simply to help users get through the initial process of signing up for Xbox Live, without forcing people to come up with something unique by themselves. The system will also accommodate new languages as a result, for non-Latin alphabet character types. Changing your Gamertag will still require a $10 payment, to keep people from frequently switching their identifier.