Sony Finally Offers PSN ID Changes

[Moonface]

After years of requests, Sony have finally given PlayStation players the ability to change their PSN ID, starting from today.

As mentioned in Sony's announcement blog post, the first name change will be free, with all subsequent changes being $9.99. However, reverting your PSN ID back to any previously used ID will be free, and your old ID's can not be taken by other players. You'll also be able to display your old ID next to your new ID in your profile for 30 days so your friends will know who you are; of course, you could opt not to show it and confuse your friends for shits and giggles.

For now, the majority of games released after April 1st, 2018 do not have any issues with PSN ID changes. Earlier games will vary, and you can see a full list of games that support PSN ID changes without a problem here.

Will you be changing your PSN ID now that we finally have the ability to, or are you happy to stick with your choice of xXxMo0nyRul3zxXx420?

[Dragon Lord]

I won't be changing my name. Too big of a risk with how many games could be negatively effected by it, as well as trophy data and save data potentially being corrupted due to a name change.

I'm happy enough with my PSN name that I don't have any need to risk the potential damages.

[Monocle]

The loss of licenses and cloud data is fucking stupid. They should've converted PSN IDs to some internal, numerical, invisible ID that would be linked to all your data.


You know, like nearly every other ID used by companies that allow displayed name alterations across the world.

[queenzelda]

I choose to go with the PSN name 'queenzelda', & I'm not changing that. I knew when picking it; that would be my ID on every platform ever. I'm always 'queenzelda' in some form. Even if I have to have a number at the end of that name; like via Xbox or dA since I have a 01 at the end of my username.

[Moonface]

The loss of licenses and cloud data is fucking stupid. They should've converted PSN IDs to some internal, numerical, invisible ID that would be linked to all your data.

Reading the blog post, it seems that happens for games marked as having that as a critical issue and Sony warns against changing your ID if you own a game that falls under that. Hopefully if anyone does it without being aware that can happen, they can just revert their ID back to fix it.

I agree with your idea on changing PSN ID's to a numerical value that has a name attached as the visible attribute to it (similar to user ID's on a forum). At least then you're changing the display only, and not needing to have any of the back-end coding change along with it. I can't believe Sony didn't think of using a method for ID's that lets them work on PS3 and Vita games such as this one.

As for changing my ID, I won't be. As queen said, I knew going in that my ID was permanent so I made sure I wouldn't pick a name I'd want to change. I would've liked to have just Moonface, but that was already taken.

[Mr EliteL]

About time, but dang costing to change your name on a second attempt sounded a bit much until I read old IDs won't become available for anyone else. So that does stop people changing it every week, so ID choices become harder to find.

If I remember correctly, my first choice username was taken back in the PS3 days, but I prefer the added EL onto it for my abbreviation others give me here anyway. So I won't be changing mine, nor my second account which I intended to have a silly name for, plus that first choice username was taken for that too.

Does sound bad with the possible loss of data and progress in a game, but glad I won't be worrying about that.