Was there an Xbox Gamertag you always wanted, but couldn’t get? You eagerly searched for the perfect name to define yourself on the Xbox, but were forced to admit defeat when someone else had it? You might get a second chance at it, as Microsoft will release about one million Xbox Gamertags that never migrated to the Xbox 360, and thus are abandoned, on May 18 at 11am PT/1pm CT/2pm ET.
There is a catch when it comes to trying for one of these Gamertags. You need to be a current Xbox Live Gold member who’s racked up at least one cumulative year of Xbox Live Gold over the lifetime of your account. That time doesn’t have to be consecutive. Once the names are released, you can go to Xbox.com, your Xbox One, or Xbox App to see if there’s a new Gamertag you’d like.
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t have a list of the close to one million Gamertags being released. Which is a shame, because it’d have been awesome to Ctrl+F and check for a specific one. The official blog did say that some of the ones being released fall into the animal, geography and travel, inventions, kinds of food, math and numbers, pop culture references, proper names, and science and technology categories. Hopefully you’ll find one you want!
Source: Microsoft