Xbox Tidbits both Good and Bad

While many of us are busy re-terrorizing the streets of Liberty City or trying to put down the Yin-Yang bestomached Seth, some Xbox 360 owners out there are finding it impossible to do much of anything. Another glitch brought on by the reality of our modern world has once again gone unnoticed by Microsoft and this time it’s cost people their Gamertags and their entire Achievement history.

If you signed up for your Gamertag with a fake or rarely used e-mail address, now might be a good time to log back in and dust things off. Turns out, if your e-mail account is expired (and typically deleted) a glitch in the Windows Live ID platform will forget that you (and your Gamerscore) ever existed. Microsoft is investigating but their only advice at the moment is to create a new Gamertag and start. all. over.

In happier news, a tipster by the name of Loot Ninja pointed out a new “Microsoft sponsored Xbox 360 survey” to Xbox.Joystiq.com that queries survey takers about Achievements. Some of the possibilities include non-gaming Achievements “like watching a certain amount of DVDs”, Achievement-unlocked in-game content, and even an “in-game way to view your Achievements list”. With Avatars bringing a third-dimension (of sorts) to our Friends list, it seems like a natural extension to offer an equally visual way to see their Achievements. I totally called that DVD Achievement in 2007 though!

And one last bit on the up and up, it seems Microsoft continues to repair Red Ringed consoles but they’ve streamlined the process and in many cases they’re upgrading consoles to newer models with newer tech. If anyone knows if every Xbox 360 circa 2005 has died at least once, it’ll be Microsoft.