Gamertag is the universal name for a player's username on Microsoft's Xbox Live. A Gamertag used online must be unique and can be up to 15 characters in length, including numbers, letters, and spaces. Gamertags can be changed using a premium service on the Xbox 360 console (for a price of 800 Microsoft Points), the system supports 8 Xbox Live-enabled profiles per memory unit and 32 profiles on the hard drive.
A player's Gamertag account status can be checked using a variety of online tools, which is useful especially when looking for a new gamertag, or confirming that a Gamertag exists. Using a valid Gamertag, any player can be located and messaged from within Live. There are also several websites which allow users of Gamertags to upload photos and information about themselves.
Gamertags can be used in a variety of places, including the original Xbox, the Xbox 360, Games for Windows – Live, Zune, and XNA Creators Club.
Gamertags also contain avatar images (or "gamer pictures"), often associated with certain games or game characters. Individual gamerpics cost between 15 and 20 Microsoft Points, but they are usually bundled into packs; packs of four or five gamerpics usually cost 80 Microsoft Points, while packs of ten typically cost 150. "Personal" pictures (which are only shown when friends view a profile) can be taken with an Xbox live vision camera. It is also possible to take "Public" pictures (which are shown to all that view a profile, unless the user has a different "personal" picture set) can be taken of avatars while using the avatar editor
Users were formally forbidden to use strings such as "gay" or refer to homosexuality in any way in their gamertag or profile due to it being considered "content of a sexual nature", even if the string occurs in a legitimate surname. Incidents where a woman was suspended from the service for identifying herself as a lesbian, and an incident where a male user was suspended for using his surname "Gaywood" in his username attracted controversy. In February 2009, Xbox Live Lead Program Manager for Enforcement Stephen Toulouse clarified the service's policy on sexual identification, stating that "Expression of any sexual orientation is not allowed in gamertags" but that the company is "examining how we can provide it in a way that won't get misused."Changes announced in March 2010 permit Xbox Live members to express sexual orientation in their gamertags and profiles.