At Xbox, your identity has always started with your gamertag – whether it’s a nickname between you and friends, a tribute to your favorite character or something unique that just stuck. We feel that all players should have the opportunity to portray who they are as a gamer and build their identity within the Xbox community. In order to achieve this, we’re revamping the Xbox gamertag to empower players around the world with more choice in how they represent themselves.

Starting today, and throughout the next year, we will be updating several features for the Xbox gamertag, which will roll out to PC, mobile devices, and Xbox One consoles.

Please note that current Xbox players can keep their existing gamertags without any further action required on their part and no change in experience from the way that it looks today .

More Options for Your Gamertag

Today, we’re unveiling a new display option for gamertags, as well as support for new alphabets. Both of which will make it easier for gamers around the world to identify themselves.

Let’s start with expanded choice to build a new gamertag using 10 new worldwide alphabets. The current Xbox community spans across the world. With this change, new gamertags will support over 200 commonly spoken languages so more gamers can express themselves in their chosen language – you could be “SeñorBúho#5405” or even “닥터 부엉이#1882.” Newly supported character sets include:

Basic Latin

Latin-1 Supplement

Hangul

Katakana

Hiragana

CJK Symbols for languages in China, Japan, and Korea

Bengali

Devanagari

Cyrillic

Thai

Next up is the new display option. Gamers can now choose a gamertag of their liking, even if that name is already taken by someone else. If the gamertag you want has already been taken by another user, Xbox will now auto-assign an ID suffix of numbers after a #-symbol to keep everybody unique, so there’s never any question about who’s who. We’ll even change the suffix font size to keep the focus on the name you chose. For example, if you want to be “Doctor Hoot,” and it’s already taken, you could now be assigned “Doctor Hoot#1056.”

Games are currently required to show the suffix while you play. You will also see the suffix in out-of-game experiences like the console UI or Xbox Game Bar so each player has a unique, visible identity while still representing themselves the way they want.

Here are examples of gamertag updates in Xbox Game Bar:

A – An example of an updated gamertag in Hangul

B – An example of a gamertag the player chose not to change. This player was the first person to pick this name and is still known as “Pit Bear” with no change in experience.

C – An example of an updated gamertag in Cyrillic. In older experiences that haven’t updated yet, this player will continue to be known as the previous gamertag, Elder Red59233.

D – An example of a gamertag that was already taken. This user was given suffix ‘#1056’ because Doctor Hoot was already registered.

These updates are available now – they will show up to fans today in the new Xbox app for PC and Xbox Game Bar, and will show on mobile devices and on consoles over the next year – so if you change your gamertag now, you may not see the full changes take place immediately. This is the first step in an ongoing journey for evolving gamertags, so we appreciate your patience as the team continues to implement new features based on your feedback. If you have an idea on how to further improve gamertags, stop by the Xbox Idea Hub and let us know.

Maintaining Your Existing Gamertag

Current Xbox players can keep their existing gamertags without any further action required on their part and no change in experience. You can sit back, relax and continue to be known by your existing gamertag without a suffix, and since you are the original owner nobody else can ever have it unless you decide to change it. So if you like your gamertag the way it is or have had it for years, nothing will change and no one will be able to use it without an assigned suffix.

If you see a player with no suffix, that means that player was the first to ever claim that original gamertag, like our very own Major Nelson.

Existing players can change their gamertags to take advantage of these updates if they wish, but by doing so may relinquish their original gamertag.

For more details, please check out some of our frequently asked questions.

As always, we look to player feedback to inform our products and make sure we are creating a great gaming experience for players around the world. So please let us know if you have any suggestions on how to make gamertags even better at the Xbox Idea Hub.

We’re looking forward to hearing what you think. My gamertag is Random (I’m going to keep it because I’ve had it for years) so feel free to add me and I’ll see you in game!

Let me know if you have questions on Twitter: @McDanRandom