It’s a situation just about anybody who’s registered a Gamertag on Xbox LIVE will understand. You’re sitting there. You’ve spent a whole two and a half minutes coming up with the PERFECT Gamertag. It’s clever, it’s sexy, it’s totally you. It’s everything you stand for. It’s the Gamertag of epic champions. You enter the Gamertag to register it, and-
NOOOOOOOO! Somebody already came up with “xX_PRO_SNIPER_HITMAN_KILLER69_Xx”?! But how can this be?
Of course, while brilliant, dazzlingly original Gamertags like “xX_PRO_SNIPER_HITMAN_KILLER69_Xx” may well be forever beyond your reach, Microsoft has begun the process of making expired Gamertags available again.
Xbox guy Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb has announced that, starting around about right now, “We have begun the process of making previously used and unavailable (dead) Xbox LIVE Gamertags available. This process will take some time to complete, and no we can’t tell you when the Gamertag you want might be available. If you are interested, you should check back regularly as we are reviving Gamertags daily.”
To check if your long-desired Gamertag has become available, hit up the My Xbox channel on the console dashboard, and select “Change Gamertag”. Note that changing your Gamertag doesn’t affect Gamerscore, Achievements, or anything else. It just, you know, changes your Gamertag.