Last year Microsoft shrunk the character limit for Gamertags from 15 down to 12, but recently players discovered that limit doesn’t apply on Xbox 360.
In a post shared yesterday on Reddit, user Talers-Username pointed out that when you go to change your Gamertag using the Xbox 360 interface it lets you make on up to 15 characters long. I grabbed my Xbox 360 down from the attic to double check this wasn’t just some weird glitch, and sure enough it was ready to let me lengthen my Gamertag as well. It even auto-generated options that were 15 characters long.
When Microsoft changed the character limits on Gamertags last year it also added unobtrusive numerical suffixes so that multiple people could use the same handle if they wanted. It certainly seems like the new 12 character limit is to make room for those suffixes.
Of course, it still costs $US10 to change your Gamertag and while the new one will be displayed in-game the old one will still be tagged to your account. Still, anyone who wants an extra long handle like VALOR_thief360X can now make that dream a reality simply by logging on through their old console. At least until Microsoft patches it.
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