PSN name changes are ‘coming soon’

Sony announced today that PlayStation users will be able to change their PlayStation Network IDs in early 2019.

A blog post about the changes established a few key points — mainly how much it will cost players to change their name once a trial period is over. Select players who have participated in system software betas previously will be allowed to change their PSN names as part of the PlayStation Preview Program. The first PSN name change will be free of charge, but “changes after that will cost $9.99 USD.” The option to change your PSN name will cost $4.99 for PlayStation Plus members, Sony said.

“Changes to online ID can be made through the Settings menu or via the Profile page of your PS4,” according to the blog post.

The blog post also states:

When you change your online ID, you will have the option to display your previous ID with your new ID, so your friends can recognize you. Once you decide to display your old ID or not, you won’t be able to adjust this after completing the online ID change process.

The preview program will finish by the end of November. Sony said it will roll out the program to all PlayStation 4 users in early 2019.

Sony’s update to PSN IDs comes with a major caveat: It might not work with all games on all platforms:

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.

PlayStation Network IDs have been set in stone since Sony’s online service launched in 2006, alongside the PlayStation 3. The option to change your PSN ID has been a longstanding request from PlayStation users, but while similar services have offered the option to change users’ display names over the years, Sony took more than a decade to address it. At last year’s PlayStation Experience, chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios Shawn Layden said he hoped to give PlayStation owners an update on Sony’s progress on that front by the end of this year.