PSN name change feature now available

Sony has introduced a new feature enabling PS4 players to change their PlayStation Network online ID.

Available today in the US and from Thursday April 11 in Europe, the long-requested feature arrived alongside a PlayStation Blog FAQ explaining how it works, and a warning about potential issues that could arise.

While all PS4 games published on or after April 1, 2018 have been developed to support the feature, Sony said it can’t guarantee that’ll be the case.

In fact, during testing it “found an instance where a game did not fully support the feature, even though it was originally published after April 1”.

Sony has published a support page listing all PS4 games that have been tested using the feature (PS3 and Vita games aren’t supported). It splits games into three categories — ones with no known issues (over 360 titles), games with issues identified, and games with critical issues identified.

The platform holder found 34 games suffered from less serious issues such as old IDs remaining visible, IDs being invisible, PSN accounts being unlinked from game accounts, and game settings being reset.

These included The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, Grand Theft Auto V, PlayStation VR Worlds and Bloodborne.

It also found ten games suffered one or more critical issues, including loss of in-game currency, DLC, game progress or user generated content, and parts of games not functioning properly, both online and offline.

These included Disc Jam, MLB The Show 16, Everybody’s Golf, MLB The Show 15, Just Dance 2017, Onrush, LittleBigPlanet 3, The Golf Club 2, MLB 14 The Show, and Worms Battlegrounds.

The first PSN ID change is free, but each subsequent change will cost $9.99/£7.99/€9.99, or $4.99/£3.99/€4.99 for PlayStation Plus members.

PSN ID changes can be made on PS4 or online, and you’ll be given the opportunity to display your old ID next to your new one in your profile for 30 days.

You can change your ID as many times as you like and its free to revert to old ones, which are reserved for you. Child accounts can’t change their ID.