Xbox Live Gamertags Now Expire if You Don't Log in Frequently Enough

You can now lose your Xbox Live gamertag if you don't log in to the service often enough, although the frequency required to keep your name isn't asking much.

Microsoft has announced upcoming changes to its service agreement, which include a few additions to the Xbox Live portion of the document. As noted by WCCF Tech, among these changes is a clause about gamertag expiration.

"You must sign into Xbox Services at least once in a five-year period," the agreement reads, "otherwise you may lose access to the gamertag associated with your account and that gamertag may become available for use by others."

Freeing up old, unused gamertags appears to be a continuing effort by Microsoft. Earlier this year, it released one million of them to a select group of Xbox Live Gold members to claim. The exact process for how those were selected wasn't shared; Microsoft only said that they had "been inactive for quite some time." Prior to that, it freed up a bunch of names in 2011.