Microsoft Now Letting You Choose Any Gamertag You Want

I'm sure this is a familiar story to all of you. You boot up your brand new console for the first time and set about with all the usual admin you need to go through when setting up a new console. Timezone. Internet settings. Parental controls or lack thereof. Yadda yadda yadda.

Then it's time to choose your gamertag. Excitedly, you jab the name "N00bSlayerX69" in, only to discover that it's been taken. Sure, you could be "N00bSlayerX70", but it's not the same. What's the point in anything? Dejected, you throw your console out of the window and vow never to play another video game as long as you live.

The good news is that Microsoft has ensured nothing like that story I just made up will ever happen to anyone again, as the previously announced changes coming to Xbox Live gamertags announced back at E3 in June seem to have finally gone live.

As Xbox previously promised at E3, Xbox One users can finally choose the gamertag they want, regardless of whether or not it's already been taken. If you happen to choose a name that's already been claimed, Xbox will simply generate a # followed by a string of numbers.

If you wanted N00bSlayerX69, then, you could go right ahead and have that. The only difference is that you'll be N00bSlayerX69#007 - though the addendum is much smaller and in a different colour, so the name you actually want is the bit that stands out. For all intents and purposes, you are N00bSlayerX69.

I'm sure this is an incredibly exciting piece of news for you and I'm thrilled to be the one to share in this moment with you, N00bSlayerX69.

While this will undoubtedly usher in a lot more freedom when it comes to creating names, you still can't call yourself whatever you want. There are limits in our civilised society, and as such Microsoft's code of conduct still applies to the new system, so you can't be wildly offensive or start trying to force hate speech into your gamertag. Not that you would. I'm sure you're lovely.