After 12 years, PlayStation allows username change

PLAYSTATION users can now change their network ID names, though some restrictions apply.

Twelve years and five months after the launch of the PlayStation Network, PlayStation users will be able to change their online names for the first time.

PSN Online IDs can now be changed via the PlayStation 4’s account management settings or by editing them through the PlayStation Network website.

The process is free the first time a change is put through; subsequent name changes command a fee of US$9.99, or US$4.99 for members of the PlayStation Plus subscription scheme, which confers access to online multiplayer, a rotation of free games, and PSN Store discounts.

However, there are several exceptions.

Notably, new names will only show up in PlayStation games published in April 2018 or afterwards, due to a system-level change enabling the new feature. Changing a PSN ID won’t work from the older PlayStation 3 or Vita consoles, neither will PS3 or Vita games show new names at all, while child accounts can’t have their names changed either.

There are also at least ten games that have so-called “critical issues” with PSN ID changes, causing loss of in-game currency, progress, or user-generated content (per playstation.com/en-us/network/ onlineid/change).

Therefore, PSN users that change their ID are being urged not to play “Disc Jam,” “Everybody’s Golf,” “Just Dance 2017,” “LittleBigPlanet 3,” “MLB The Show” 14, 15 and 16, “Onrush,” “The Golf Club 2” and “Worms Battlegrounds.” — Relaxnews

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PlayStation users can now start fresh, when Network fDs can be renamed. — Photo courtesy of Playstation