MS 'actively working' on linking Gamertags to new Windows Live IDs

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Feb 20th 2009 7:00AM

Is that Tilda Swinton in the middle?

Having amassed an impressive Gamerscore by slogging through Cabela hunting games, forgettable anime beat-em-ups and the last Iron Man game, it's no surprise that Xbox Live users become agitated when their Gamertags are placed in jeopardy. Earlier this week, it was reported that Windows Live IDs linked to dormant email addresses were at risk of deletion, taking associated Gamertags with them.

However, Microsoft has clarified the situation, noting, "People with dormant Windows Live IDs can continue to enjoy the benefits of their Xbox LIVE Gamertags on their Xbox 360 consoles, including earning Achievements; however, they will not be able to use their expired Windows Live IDs for activities such as account management on xbox.com." According to a company representative, "An Xbox LIVE Gamertag is unrecoverable from the system only when the associated Windows Live ID has become dormant and the Gamertag has been deleted from all Xbox 360 consoles." In other words, a dead Windows Live ID will prevent you from recovering your Gamertag online should you change consoles or attempt account management, such as renewing your Xbox Live subscription.

Microsoft is "actively working" on a solution that should allow you to sever the dead weight of an expired Windows Live ID and link your Gamertag to a new one. In the meantime, Major Nelson recommends you log into your Windows Live ID (do it through xbox.com) at least once every four months. Think of it as an insincere pleasantry with long-term benefits -- like visiting your mother-in-law.

Tags: Gamerscore, Gamertag, Hotmail, Microsoft, Windows-Live-ID, Xbox-360, Xbox-Live

Reader Comments (40)

I created One a while ago since my Gmail and Yahoo was giving me problems. Its also a Free email account so I cant complain.

~Sin~

...Doesn't playing Xbox Live you know... Activate your Windows ID?

I don't understand this whole problem.

Question: I have my gamertag linked to a @live.co.uk email address. I visit my mail about 1 every 2 weeks.

Is my gamertag at risk of deletion? Do @live.co.uk email addresses expire?

That should be "I visit my mail every once in 2 weeks."

You'll be fine.

The issue is the following, and I have a friend this happened to.

Your gamer profile on your console is deleted or corrupted and can't be used.

You goto Recover Gamertag, it asks you for your email address, generally this will be @hotmail and it's password.

Oh no's, my email account is no longer active or I have no idea what the password is.

You can't recover your gamertag, it is essentially lost.

You phone MS, they say 'If you can't login to the email account your gamertag is linked to your gamertag is can never be recovered'

You cry in corner.

True story.

Thanks for the clear up mattclarkie

Good to know they are quickly working on it. I remember when I linked the wrong PSN account to my PlayStation account. My god the headache I got from that was worse than the one you get after drinking a 7-11 Slurpee. Hopefully both Microsoft and Sony discover these problems earlier from now on.

*PlayStation Underground* ^^

Good to know that you just have to sign in to Xbox.com or something. I originally interpreted the story to have something to do with your associated email address, of which mine is long gone (whyyyyyyyy did I use my college email?).

Still, it'll be good to associate it to an email that I can actually access.

I have a similar problem, but found a much worse side-effect of it.

I've had Live since the 2nd round of Beta testing. I had my Live account associated to my ISP at the time. Well, my ISP was sold to a new company, and my email address changed.

By itself, this wasn't a problem. I've never had a problem using Live. The problem I have run into is that there is no way to change that association to my new email address, so if I take part in some Live promotion, such as ones giving away free Marketplace Points, I can't get the reward, because it's still being sent to my now defunct email.

I don't understand why it's so hard for MS to simply add the option of allowing the user to change the email address the Live account is associated with.

You have to call and get the email address changed...i had to do that....

You can change the contact email through the xbox website. It doesn't change your what account you are linked to (which they are addressing here) but it does change the email that MS sends you information. Log in and go to the contact information in account management and you will see a place to change the contact email (for prizes or whatever).

Resistance is futile

Live.xbox.com is one of the most underrated features of the 360. You can que up purchases, message friends, add friends, see who's online, add points, add months, chage bio/profile crap. Its pretty much awesome and there is no reason NOT to be using it on a regular basis.

I've found the online marketplace crazy useful for sorting through Community and Arcade games. It's quite a bit faster to check out a ton of games using the web than it is the console.

This is the sound of me not caring: meh. Don't get me wrong though, I admire what I hear about live on the 360, but the Steam boat left the docks on the PC platform a long time ago.

Still, Microsoft has a history of just throwing money at a problem until its opponents die under the weight of all those c-notes.

What? I don't see what steam has to do with this.

@Duke: What? I don't see what steam has to do with this.

You would be correct. I reread the article after I posted and realized it only concerned signing on via a web page. Ach well, I'll have to deal with the shame eh?

Nah, no shame!

you would think that Logging into you XBL account on your 360 would be enough

How many of these "Oh yeah, we didn't think of that" problems has this system had in it's lifetime? Not that Sony has done any better. (Except for hardware reliability)

"Not that Sony has done any better. (Except for hardware reliability)"

Spoken like someone that has conveniently forgotten the disc read problems with PS1 and PS2 (remember turning your PS1 upside so it will read discs?). I've sent 2 PS3's back to Sony in the first 6 months of ownership, so I get a little annoyed when people try to give Sony a free pass on all of their hardware issues over the years.

So MS gets a pass on it's 90% failure rate from you? I know at least 20 people with 360's and ONE has not red ringed or E74'ed. Several have had more than 2 go bad. Piss and moan all you want, but the 360 may have the least reliable hardware in the history of mass market consumer electronics.

That's all well and good, but it should not be MANDATORY that you visit the site at all.

Opps... sorry. We didn't think of that. Again... sigh

Oh god, I can finally get rid of my ancient hotmail account?

oh man. I thought your pic was something else, something very very wrong.

Dear Microsoft,

Check out this neat idea:

"update XBOXLIVEACCOUNT set email = 'new@email.com' where userid = 'myid'";

oh and before some smartass goes, "ITS NOT THAT SIMPLE YOU MORON"

I know that, it's a joke.

If your gamertag is linked to your e-mail, everytime you sign into xbox live surely it should count as the asociated e-mail adress as being active, wouldn't that be more simple?

But it isn't, Xbox Live isn't counted as activity, but MSN is, although not MSN via Xbox.

Who you callin' Shirley?

why dont people just attach their gamertag to the windows live ID they use?

an inactive account is one that people dont go on, so if you attach it to the email you use, you shouldnt have a problem.

though i thought it was already possible to change the ID associated with your gamertag? cos i did it; i had an @hotmail.co.uk addy when i first made my gamertag, then i got a new @live.co.uk, and i just moved my gamertag from one to the other. seeing as i no longer use the @hotmail.co.uk, its inactive, and probably will be deleted soon, but my gamertag is now associated with the new @live.co.uk email i use for emails and MSN etc. so my gamertag wont be deleted along with it.

just dont stick your gamertag on an email address you dont use. simple

-My Hotmail account got hacked last April... F*cking sucked!) (never thought it would happen to me).. HA HA! Anyways,, and the little bastard changed my password so i couldn't log in. Since my gamertag is linked to that Account i can't sign into Messenger when i go on Xbox live or Manage it on XBOX.COM. However i can still access & fully use my Gamertag on my xbox. i have a new hotmail account now. so i hope they can link my New account with My Gamertag.. i really don't wanna lose it! o_0

You can change more than just your contact email, you can change the email associated with your gamertag... yep, it's true! You just have to set your email up as a windows live ID, which isn't hard... http://www.passport.net and then go to "Use an e-mail address you already have" and the Get Started now right below that.

Any email address can be used for a gamertag, you just have to set it up as a Live ID if it isn't hotmail.

As posted above, here's how you can magically change your windows live ID from the xbox (provided you have made the email a Live ID per passport.net): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945419

so if i changed my email address to a live ID do i have to change it on sites that i have it saved on.. like Amazon? would i have to go to amazon, ebay etc. and change it from @hotmail.com to @live.com? or will it do it automatically??

@tristan

Changing your email address to a Live ID just makes it a Live ID in the system.. the email address does not change. If your email is already @hotmail.com or @live.com then no need to do this, as it already IS a Live ID. yahoo, gmail, juno, etc. need to be set up this way, but it doesn't change the email address at all and it doesn't look any different.

Basically, after setting any email adress up as a Live ID, you can proceed to use your exact same email address to login on a site asking for a live ID and a password. You can have the Live ID password also seperate from the email password, for extra security :)

I'd really much rather have them fix that problem where the Xbox 360 thinks it's a Wii...I absolutely cannot stand those avatars. Yes, it was a shameless hate post, but by god if I haven't been somewhat discouraged from playing my system because of it constantly prompting me to create an avatar I do not want over a simple gamerpic.

okay, this makes more sense then what I thought it originally meant. My Live account is an old Passport account that I created ages ago using a Yahoo e-mail address, i thought they meant that Live accounts tied to email addresses like that were just automatically tanking, which would be much more devastating than just losing my XBox account (since I use it for MSN and the Microsoft Connect site as well)

logging into xbox.com and it not showing anything on my profile and getting a page error on the profile page, and logging into the XNA site and it not showing my gamertag on my profile, didnt help to dissuade that... until it finally showed up after navigating like 20 pages

Well its official this has happened to me. Like it said in the article i just renewed live for a year. But what i don't get is my gamertag is linked to my yahoo email and i always use it. I accpect some compensation.

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 220 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 153 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 108 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix 93 comments

MS 'actively working' on linking Gamertags to new Windows Live IDs

Reader Comments (40)

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 7:15AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 7:40AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 8:09AM x Prime x said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 8:12AM x Prime x said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 8:32AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 12:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 12:22PM x Prime x said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 8:16AM Birth Canal said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 8:17AM Birth Canal said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 8:32AM drcheah said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 9:22AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 9:30AM kastonie said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:11AM Duke said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 8:36AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 8:40AM ScottG13 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:25AM Courtney said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 9:03AM borland502 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:14AM Duke said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 11:05AM borland502 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 12:15PM Duke said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 9:06AM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 9:24AM Deadmeat1240 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:38AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 11:12AM Deadmeat1240 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 9:26AM Deadmeat1240 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:13AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 11:06AM robotoid said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:14AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:17AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:34AM usualyksint said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 12:24PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 11:14AM Deadmeat1240 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 12:24PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 2:01PM tmille69 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 2:04PM Mystictrust said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2009 11:39PM tmille69 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 3:38PM Mystictrust said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 2:10PM holyice7 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:49PM sRc said

Posted: Feb 21st 2009 9:31PM orangeHAZE26 said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Double Fine Kickstarter passes $1 million in under 24 hours, breaking yet another record

Featured Stories

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier brings information warfare to the front

Rhythm Heaven Fever review: Crazy into you

Remedy not done with Alan Wake

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days