Xbox is Adding Support for Longer Gamertags, Cloud Play During Game Downloads, More

The Xbox team has been regularly shipping new console experiences since Asha Sharma became the new CEO of Xbox, and this continues today with a new Insider update. Testers on the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring are getting access to a more flexible gamertag system, the ability to stream games while games are downloading in the background, and more.

“We’ve heard from players who wanted a little more flexibility when choosing a gamertag, and we’re bringing back support for unique gamertags up to 15 characters long, expanded from the previous 12-character limit,” the Xbox team explained. This new 15-character limit only applies to unique gamertags (without a suffix). Gamertags with a suffix and others that use non-Latin characters will continue to be limited to up to 12 characters.

As of today, it’s not possible to download a game or game update while streaming a game on Xbox Cloud Gaming, and this new Insider update finally changes that. Microsoft will now allow Xbox gamers with a Game Pass subscription to launch a cloud-enabled game while it’s installing or updating in the background.

Lastly, Microsoft is updating the Game hubs that now open automatically when you open a game from the recently played list on Home, custom groups, or the My Games and apps menu. Game hubs for Xbox 360 games will now display achievement progress, game captures, and other types of information that appear on game hubs for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S games. Lastly, these Game Hubs are getting a new ‘Add to wishlist’ button right next to the ‘Add to Play later’ button.

As usual, these new features will roll out gradually to other Xbox Insider rings before becoming available to all Xbox gamers.