If your PlayStation network username is something like XxXs0LiD_sN4ke3447XxX or Gamer_Girl_Swagx3, or if you simply empathize with people who have unfortunate PSN usernames, we bring you good news. Sony announced on Wednesday that the long-awaited—and frequently requested—ID change feature will arrive in 2019.
At the end of September, it was revealed that there would be no PlayStation Experience this year. This came to the disappointment of many PlayStation fans, as Shawn Layden, the Chairman of PlayStation Worldwide Studios, had hinted at the last PlayStation Experience that a PlayStation Network name change feature would be announced by 2018’s PlayStation Experience. Since there will be no such event in 2018, it was assumed that we might see the feature in 2019. Turns out that we will all indeed see the feature in the early months of next year.
In a post on the official PlayStation blog, Sid Shuman, the Director of Social Media, revealed that the feature will come in the form of a beta that will be part of the PlayStation Preview Program. It’ll first become available to those who have pre-registered themselves as testers for previous system software betas.
During the preview program, you can change your online ID as many times as you want; however, only the first change will be free. Any other changes will cost $10 for non-PlayStation Plus subscribers. PlayStation Plus members will be able to change their IDs for half of that price, $5. You will be able to make the changes through the Settings menu or your Profile page on the PlayStation 4.
Many of us have experienced the confusion that happens when a mutual on Twitter just so happens to change their username, display name and display picture all at once, making us wonder who the heck they are. PlayStation seems to be aware of the pains of these occurrences, and the company is determined to help out. One of the good things about this feature is that when you change your online ID, you will have the option to display your previous ID with your new ID so that friends can recognize you. But once you decide to display your old ID or not, you won’t be allowed to adjust this setting once you finish the ID change process.
The feature will be compatible with PlayStation 4 games that were originally published after April 1, 2018. Shuman makes sure to note that not all games and applications for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita systems are guaranteed to support the online ID change, so some users may encounter some 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),” Shuman explains. “Reverting back to an old ID will resolve most issues caused by the ID change.”
The preview program for the online ID change feature is scheduled to finish at the end of November. If all goes smoothly, the full feature will be available to all PlayStation 4 players in early 2019.