For those who have had to live with the constant regret of choosing a terrible PlayStation ID, your days of remorse are about to come to an end!
Earlier today, Sid Shuman – Director of Social Media at PlayStation – posted a blog entry that detailed Sony’s plan to allow PlayStation users to finally be able to change their PSN Online ID, which is tentatively scheduled to be available sometime in early 2019.
“We’re happy to announce that we will soon begin testing the long-awaited feature that will allow users to change their PlayStation Network Online ID from their PlayStation 4 system,” the blog post states. “The PSN Online ID Change feature beta will be a part of the PlayStation Preview Program, and will become available to select users that have pre-registered as testers for previous PS4 system software betas.”
During this preview program, users will be able to change their PSN online IDs as many times as they want, with the first change being free. Any name changes after that will cost $4.99 USD for PlayStation Plus members, and $9.99 USD for non-members.
Users will even have the option to display their previous PSN Online ID with their new one, so that friends will be able to easily recognize them. However, bear in mind that deciding whether to display the former ID or not will be a permanent decision on your profile.
Another quirk of the ID change feature is that the name change may not be compatible with every game, which Shuman lays out in detail:
“This feature is compatible with PS4 games originally published after April 1, 2018, and a large majority of the most-played PS4 games that were released before this date. However, please note not all games and applications for PS4, PS3 and PS Vita systems are guaranteed to support the online ID change, and users may occasionally encounter issues or errors in certain games. If for any reason you experience issues after changing your ID, you can revert back to your original ID for free at any time (you will only be able to revert once during the preview program). Reverting back to an old ID will resolve most issues caused by the ID change. In addition, when this feature officially launches, a list of compatible games published before April 1, 2018, will be provided on PlayStation.com for reference before you make a change.”
Being able to change PSN IDs is a long-overdue feature that PlayStation users have been wanting for years. Obviously, there is still some work to be done before the feature goes live, but it’s great to know that Sony is finally making it happen, as the company continues is recent refocus of better catering to its community.
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