October 10, 2018April 10, 2019

PSN Online ID Change Feature Entering PlayStation Preview Program Soon

Update: Read this post for the latest information and details on the online ID change feature.

We’re happy to announce that we will soon begin testing the long-awaited feature that will allow users to change their PlayStation Network Online ID from their PlayStation 4 system. The PSN Online ID Change feature beta will be a part of the PlayStation Preview Program, and will become available to select users that have pre-registered as testers for previous PS4 system software betas.

During the preview program, you will be able to change your online ID as many times as you want. The first change is free, and changes after that will cost $9.99 USD / CAD. For PlayStation Plus members, it will cost $4.99 USD/ CAD after the first change. Changes to online ID can be made through the Settings menu or via the Profile page of your PS4.

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.

~~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.

The preview program for this feature is scheduled to conclude at the end of November 2018. The full rollout of the feature to all PS4 owners is planned for early 2019, so stay tuned for updates down the road!

Comments are closed.

182 Comments

HalfMileRide
October 10, 2018 at 5:21 am PDT

Great, I have a really old account I became ashamed of using while playing multiplayer games because of the immaturity of the ID itself, I made it 10 years ago when I was a very immature 12 year old, hopefully this new feature means that we can permanently change them too, as I do not want to be ‘known as’ by my old account.

I also hope that old Online IDs on accounts that have not been logged on since years ago can be used again, lots of original and cool names have gone over the years only to be left unused as new generations come into play.
- Tuben13M
  October 10, 2018 at 8:55 am PDT
  
  Yeah I made the mistake to use my childhood nickname and have been called “Tube” many of times and It’s so cringe, I never want to be associated with this username again. And I don’t want create a new account because Ive bought all of my games on this PSN account I’ve spent around $600 I Also would prefer to keep the trophies I earned.
- DRV-darshp2005
  October 10, 2018 at 9:25 am PDT
  
  Will the feature be applicable in Fortnite and COD Black Ops 3???
- Teflon02
  October 10, 2018 at 9:40 am PDT
  
  DRV. Black Ops should be fine.
  Fortnite if problems, these are likely the ways to make it work properly
  You may need to unlink your PSN and relink it
  Make sure it isn’t a ghost account and you’ve already claimed the legit epic account.
- AdrenalineElite3
  October 10, 2018 at 9:55 am PDT
  
  I wonder if we will be able to take our old ID and combine it to our already new ID. That way we can have all trophies listed under one
- yoodaddy811
  October 10, 2018 at 10:46 am PDT
  
  Would it be possible for rainbow six siege?
- goodcolemacgrath
  October 10, 2018 at 11:40 am PDT
  
  Hey make sure Grand Theft Auto V is compatible with this
- NIGHTRAVEN3
  October 10, 2018 at 12:49 pm PDT
  
  So, what was the old name?? I wanna know!
- TrapBoyrobb15
  October 10, 2018 at 10:40 pm PDT
  
  So I made a new psn acc to have a cool gt but I tried to switch my epic games acc to that one it wouldn’t let me so it could be cool if I can make my main psn acc as my new one by of the gt but I don’t think it’s going to be possible unless like I change that cool one to something else and but my main as the cool one
- GLOC65
  October 10, 2018 at 10:52 pm PDT
  
  Change our psn will we keep our rewards
- Hudeyyz
  October 11, 2018 at 6:42 am PDT
  
  :D
- Bennelirene1539
  October 13, 2018 at 9:26 pm PDT
  
  Thank god, I heard last year that if you did change it, you would lose your game data.
- RYANCRAFT
  November 7, 2018 at 5:00 pm PST
  
  Yall dead ass cant be talkin lmfao
cubbielovr
October 10, 2018 at 5:28 am PDT

I am glad that people can finally do this. Even though I haven’t had any issues with it myself, I know it was a headache for many others.
nathanuc1988
October 10, 2018 at 5:31 am PDT

Will our original ID be locked so that no one else can claim it?

Also, does the compatibility generally only apply to online aspects of the games or is it a license/game save level?
- MMaLuFF
  October 10, 2018 at 6:05 am PDT
  
  I would like to know if I will be able to exchange my ID between my accounts, I have a european account I would like to use its ID as my “official”
  
  so will our old id be locked or will I be able to use it?
- BogdanSora
  October 10, 2018 at 8:11 am PDT
  
  Since you can revert at anytime to your old PSN ID, I’m pretty sure both your old and new IDs will be “reserved”, so you won’t be able to swap them. However, it might be possible for the oldest ID to be “released” if you do a second ID change (which will not be free). Best to ask PlayStation support directly about this, though.
- GhostlyMenace22
  October 10, 2018 at 9:50 am PDT
  
  If any person claims my ID god help them haha
- CaptainAlbator
  October 10, 2018 at 11:09 am PDT
  
  It says you can change it back to your original PSN ID at any time for free, so most likely no.
Jogador76
October 10, 2018 at 5:36 am PDT

Nice, but I’m still waiting for the ability to change my country of residence.
- GURSIMRAN
  October 10, 2018 at 9:43 am PDT
  
  Same here… desperately wants to change that… it’s a requirement wen online ID change is just for fun
- CaptainAlbator
  October 10, 2018 at 11:25 am PDT
  
  That’s going to be more difficult. PSN is not a global system. It’s regionalized because of things like different monetary laws, languages, and different social customs. Buying things like DLC for certain games will create problems. New DLC will not work your existing games. And you’re going to be paying more for your games and DLC, because of the different taxes and exchange rates, and banks charging you a 2-5% in a “conversion fee”, and that’s if they even want to do international business, which many banks don’t want to do because of the red tape. Due censorship laws in different countries, once you change your country you could be locked out of certain games due to them being banned. That’s already happening when you create a new account and select a different region
  
  I know certain systems like iTunes and XBox Live have country changes, however their systems are built differently. There is no “European version” of Hey Jude by The Beatles. I’m not an Xbox Live member, so I have no idea of how they do it. So even though you might want a change of country, it’s not as easy as flipping a switch.
iMODz-_-BEasTxX
October 10, 2018 at 5:51 am PDT

So, there will be no more new testers? As you can see on my psn ID, I would’ve liked testing this lol
SGen1625
October 10, 2018 at 6:08 am PDT

This is a terrible way of doing this, no creativity. Just do what every other cloud based service does…… Tie it to a email account, which will always stay the same, and let people change user ID’s at will…..NO CHARGE. Please use this idea instead people would be much happier. And if you use my idea….. Email me
- nathanuc1988
  October 10, 2018 at 6:17 am PDT
  
  Email accounts change too… it should be tied to a unique key used only by the systems. It’s being done the way it is because of how the system was designed 10+ years ago. No matter how the do it (even if they tie it to email), they’ll have issues with previous systems/games built upon the old process.
- MomeAlsadi
  October 10, 2018 at 6:21 am PDT
  
  AGREE
- jgrizzle358
  October 10, 2018 at 7:54 am PDT
  
  Why does it not surprise me that PlayStation is finally doing what we’ve been asking for for countless years and yet someone in the comments is still complaining because it’s not enough? Stop being so entitled. They already did something differently. If you are a PlayStation plus member it’s a cheaper fee to change. They’re not going to just not charge when the competition does. Businesses exist to make money. Realistically with a second chance we should all be smart enough to pick an ID that we will actually be okay with for an extended period this time and if not, $5 is chump change.
- Jisatsu_Kiddo
  October 10, 2018 at 10:34 am PDT
  
  they do need to charge like 100 bucks. people just might learn a lesson instead of whine all the time.
- CaptainAlbator
  October 10, 2018 at 11:10 am PDT
  
  And let the complaining begin!!
- KazeLynn
  October 13, 2018 at 11:44 pm PDT
  
  Yeah, to be honest, I’d like it if they took one more page from everyone else’s book and just let you freely change your display name whenever you wanted but kept your account name the same… I mean, as you can see, my username is sliiiiightly embarrassing, but at least I get to change it once for free, I guess.
TepewQukumatz
October 10, 2018 at 6:08 am PDT

What kind of issues would there be with older games? Like render them unplayable?
- VietKnight
  October 10, 2018 at 8:02 am PDT
  
  More like some games that has your ID tied to your online progress llike FFXIV COD Warframe.
- TrueLink00
  October 10, 2018 at 8:23 am PDT
  
  Also, older games that refer to your id will likely still refer to your old ID. It sounds like the new ID is a new database field, and those games wouldn’t know to look there.
MNA7i-505-KSA
October 10, 2018 at 6:11 am PDT

Everybody calm down
i have a big question
if my old id is ( koko1 ) and i changed to ( the-king1) will koko1 be available ?
i mean can anyone pick koko1 after i changed my id ??
- MomeAlsadi
  October 10, 2018 at 6:20 am PDT
  
  good question, I also have a question, I have two accounts the first is old with all my friend and trophies on it the second is new, my question is can I have the name of the second account as the first account?
- FeistFan
  October 10, 2018 at 8:02 am PDT
  
  Since the option to revert is there – and apparently there forever – then no, it sounds like nobody would be able to pick up koko1, in your example. It appears your first name is YOURS, forever, based on what they announced.
  
  The more interesting (to me) question is, if you change it as you said, and then changed AGAIN to not-the-king1, would you later be able to change AGAIN back to the-king1, or is there a chance that could be taken? I think it’s too early to tell for sure.
  
  Not that I care too much – I like my name – but I look forward to no longer seeing requests for changing names tagged onto every single post Sony makes about anything Playstation related.
- geotimer
  October 15, 2018 at 6:22 am PDT
  
  Thank you Playstation for doing this, I really wanted to change my name for a very very long time, now I can finally do it
Stormkiller291
October 10, 2018 at 6:17 am PDT

Man I cant wait!!
- langdon
  October 10, 2018 at 6:37 am PDT
  
  I’m guessing you don’t kill storms anymore?
- Berae
  October 10, 2018 at 7:25 am PDT
  
  Loll
- FeistFan
  October 10, 2018 at 8:03 am PDT
  
  Finally killed that 292nd storm, eh?
MomeAlsadi
October 10, 2018 at 6:18 am PDT

this is great but I have a question. I have two accounts the first is old with all my friend and trophies on it the second is new, my question is can I have the name of the second account as the first account? thank you so much
saab01
October 10, 2018 at 6:21 am PDT

There is still a big question that wasn’t clearly answered. Which was saying older games may not work with changing your name so what your saying is different stats will be lost on older games if your name is changed ?

What about our old name can someone pick it up after we switch to a new one?
- XxWolfheartxX
  October 10, 2018 at 6:38 am PDT
  
  they probably mean that they just won’t support the new name change feature and will most likely display your old ID.
- CaptainAlbator
  October 10, 2018 at 11:11 am PDT
  
  It says you can change back to your old ID at anytime for free, so your old ID will probably remain yours as a back up for a time.
Pinkiewidow
October 10, 2018 at 6:25 am PDT

How do I sign up ? I have a auto assigned game tag that I’d love to change
Neo-CTU
October 10, 2018 at 6:30 am PDT

Here’s a good question for you:
How short are we able to choose our new user names? Are we limited to 4 letters? 5?

Much appreciated. Keep up the good work.
stevenandloan
October 10, 2018 at 6:34 am PDT

The question I want answered is the one no one seems to have asked: How will this work with trophies? Will I still have all my previous trophies tied to my new username? I don’t understand what compatibility issues would arise with older games. I don’t play online/multiplayer, but shouldn’t everything be tied to the same account? If I’m earning trophies — regardless of what system I’m playing on — it should be tied to my new username, right? Why is this so complicated?
- MomeAlsadi
  October 10, 2018 at 6:50 am PDT
  
  if you can’t keep your trophies and library then what the hell is the point of the whole feature, you could have a new one with all your friend wallet
- Billy_The_Puppet
  October 10, 2018 at 9:45 am PDT
  
  That what I was wondering.. Hopefully our PS3/Vita trophies & purchases are safe.. They need to address this.. I see a bunch of people on social media asking this & no one has an answer.
mr_minecraftdude
October 10, 2018 at 6:37 am PDT

Would love to test this feature
XEPHER113
October 10, 2018 at 6:56 am PDT

Really nice they’re doing this, now my concerns are, named with inactive players 3+ years offline and left to dust will those get deleted and have those names re-usable?
RamadiRed
October 10, 2018 at 7:06 am PDT

The link to the story about being a beta tester works ( https://blog.playstation.com/2018/01/15/sign-up-for-the-next-ps4-system-software-update-beta-3/ ) but the link to the beta test signup page is broken ( https://www.playstation.com/en-us/legal/playstation-4-firmware-55-beta-registration/beta-registration/ )
- dsonck92
  October 12, 2018 at 9:11 am PDT
  
  I think it doesn’t work as the link itself says it will be open till February. So we all came too late to test.
Admitting
October 10, 2018 at 7:19 am PDT

GREAT! I’m also concerned with this being finally official, can you guys reset inactive psn usernames like Xbox aswell? There are many usernames that are inactive and will allow users to escape there embarrassment name. Please do this!
villdoc
October 10, 2018 at 7:20 am PDT

Hello
FxxkImAwesome
October 10, 2018 at 7:23 am PDT

As someone who’s had his PSN ID since launch when he was just a kid..

…thank you. Thank you, Sony. *breaks down in relieved tears*
LordRasor
October 10, 2018 at 7:23 am PDT

From what I’m gathering, it appears that the way the Playstaion network was originally architected back when PS3 was announced, they failed to tie the PSN ID to a unique identifier on the back end. If you were to look at the backend server, you would see a folder structure consisting of PSN ID’s instead of numberic identifiers. For example, if your name was “SniperWolf”, your folder on the server would simply be named as /sniperwolf/trophies or /sniperwolf/cloud-data. Sony has been trying to figure out how they can rename/replace the server SQL data for years without people losing any of their information. Bad design IMO. What I believe they are doing now as a “workaround” to allow PSN ID changes, is they are essentially building an Active Directory tree, and adding whatever new PSN ID as an “alias” of your original. So therefore the core structure of their services stays the same, your data is still located in the folder /sniperwolf/trophies, however you have an alias that “points” to that folder structure and pulls all info relevant to your account.
- Ratchet426
  October 10, 2018 at 3:21 pm PDT
  
  Couldn’t Sony just take the original username/ID and run it through a hashing algorithm to generate a unique number from it, then use that value as your unique numeric PSN identifier (a.k.a database record key)? Only downside is that your original username could never be re-used by someone else, but it sounds like that’s what’s happening anyway.
  
  Older games could still look up the original username by ‘decrypting’ the hash value
Marqisking
October 10, 2018 at 7:25 am PDT

Wait a minute I have to play for a name change even if I’m paying for PlayStation plus ‍♂️ Wtf lol.
KaraokeJimbo
October 10, 2018 at 7:26 am PDT

As a transgender woman I’m so excited to here this. Having to see my dead name every time I log in has been terrible. Thank you so much for finally rolling this out.
Tikire
October 10, 2018 at 7:26 am PDT

Happy for all who wanted this for such a long time… Thankfully my ID was my first choice and I’m happy with it as everybody that’s in my friends list know me as “Tiki”. So no desire to change. But it’s cool that we now have this feature.
EyeBumGaze
October 10, 2018 at 7:29 am PDT

Well goodbye imature 35 year old me , it was a blast of 10 years my old PSN ID .
Invictus_80
October 10, 2018 at 7:36 am PDT

So will this name change glitch out and treat stuff we bought on PS3 as if we never bought it (or something to that effect) as I had heard would happen?
M3atWad_6996
October 10, 2018 at 7:38 am PDT

I can finally change the name on my main account, it has the date of when my ex and I dated in middle school and i fully regret it, young love but thank you for giving us the chance to change it!!!
batbugz
October 10, 2018 at 7:49 am PDT

Great. People wanted it and I’m glad they’re getting it. Now can I get the bedrock edition of Minecraft please?
xaos
October 10, 2018 at 7:49 am PDT

Hmm, I wonder what the new “I’m dropping PSN because it doesn’t have ” feature will be ;)

Good job, folks. Having done database work myself, I’m sure this was a lot trickier than it might have appeared to a casual user.
xDD90x
October 10, 2018 at 7:54 am PDT

Well done Sony! Better late than never.
quickfire123
October 10, 2018 at 8:01 am PDT

I just want to know:

Will inactive usernames be available because of this: ie someone who hasn’t logged on in 5 years?

Will Destiny be compatible?
- CaptainAlbator
  October 10, 2018 at 11:27 am PDT
  
  It says it takes effect immediately for games released after April 1, 2018, and it may work on some games released prior to that. So no idea if it works on anything older yet.
BlueBl1zzard
October 10, 2018 at 8:05 am PDT

Glad a feature like this is being implemented. Two questions:

1) So it sounds like this is going to be reflected on a game by game basis? What about on our regular PS4/Vita home screen friends list, which name(s) will show up there?

2) If the answer to the previous question is “the newer names will”, and a friend does not choose the option to show the original + new name, is there a way to know what our friends changed their name to?
neogearzx
October 10, 2018 at 8:16 am PDT

Yo what up my dudes ShrimpChipsTV here but for now you’ll just have to deal with my old username, neogearzx. At the time I thought it was a cool idea to mix Neo from the Matrix with Xenogears from the best game ever made, Xenogears. Well guess what, SquareSoft stopped making good RPGs and these days everyone just plays Fortnite. After a while people just start to think my user ID is some sort of racial slur. I would really like to have my username changed completely please. I would also like Square to start making good RPGs again because it’s kinda sad that the most anticipated game ever is an unfaithful, action re-make of a slapped together PS1 game

flex yo nuts and stay hydrated
ShrimpChips signing off.
NEOMERCER
October 10, 2018 at 8:23 am PDT

Thank GOD. Now all you people can stop commenting the same thing on literally every post even when it’s completely unrelated to what’s being discussed.
- EndlessWinter23
  October 11, 2018 at 4:54 am PDT
  
  This is the real win from this feature.
Shadow_Kamui
October 10, 2018 at 8:27 am PDT

I don’t have a problem with my nick but I am happy for other people.

This would had bean an amazing announce for PSX I know you say you did not have much to show but this along probably would had made the show of PSX
El1ZA_H4UNTING
October 10, 2018 at 8:30 am PDT

I’m so happy this is finally going to be a feature, I was young and going through a phase when I first made my PSN ID. The question I have is, and it might seem pretty odd to ask, when everyone was asking about old ps3 games adjusting to the changes, but what about old ps3 trophies? And our trophy ‘level’ (for example: mine is 12) will all of the trophies still be tied to your account or will some of them not register the new name as it should and maybe lose them?
BestSonic92
October 10, 2018 at 8:34 am PDT

Will we also be able to change the birthdate linked to our online ID?
Swaapa
October 10, 2018 at 8:36 am PDT

Will you be releasing inactive PSN names? For example names that are inactive for 5+ years.
MightyGG_
October 10, 2018 at 8:41 am PDT

Can you do so you can have different names on different games
- CaptainAlbator
  October 10, 2018 at 11:28 am PDT
  
  No, this is for your PSN account, not for individual games.
Mystakill2
October 10, 2018 at 8:50 am PDT

I just want to swap the two online IDs that I have. My preferred one somehow got tied to GB, so I couldn’t use the US PSN store. I had to create a new online ID to make purchases with, but still played the games with my preferred online ID. I tried many times to get “support” to change it, but that wasn’t in any of their scripts.
cherryRuBBins
October 10, 2018 at 8:52 am PDT

I honestly thought this was available I found out it wasn’t a few months back, where do I sign up?
Dewiify2
October 10, 2018 at 8:58 am PDT

I’ve made multiple accounts due to me always wanting to change my PSN. This is something I’ve been waiting for ever since I got my PS4.
NBA2004-07
October 10, 2018 at 9:13 am PDT

Wiil my psn name in fortnite change?
lowryder92
October 10, 2018 at 9:19 am PDT

Good luck finding a cool screen name that isnt already taken. If you have a lame name,chances are your next options available will be just as lame. Most of us who hate our names (myself included) have long since started new accounts to have that new name to game under already.

Good luck though.
DRV-darshp2005
October 10, 2018 at 9:21 am PDT

Will the change be applicable in Fortnite and COD Black Ops 3???
Parax2018
October 10, 2018 at 9:24 am PDT

oh my god fINALLY

Now when are we going to be able to switch the region of our PSN IDs
jenjenenjenj
October 10, 2018 at 9:29 am PDT

In my case, my daughter used her ID and I want to change it to my own.
ReptileHand
October 10, 2018 at 9:34 am PDT

I could possibly test it but I’m comfortable with my name from 7 years ago or am I? I probably am. Maybe. But then again…Kudos to you Sony! I never thought the day would come.
DANDREY2K7
October 10, 2018 at 9:36 am PDT

You will allow me to change my name for free after that it will be $10 every time I change my name Why? Explain to me why it cost? I’m I paying for the rights to the name? Is this fee just because you can do it?
GhostlyMenace22
October 10, 2018 at 9:49 am PDT

Thank god, I just hope there aren’t any issues with th I’d change in games like GTA and Siege or something. I would much prefer to not be called what I named myself as a very sad and depressed 9 year old virgin…
- GhostlyMenace22
  October 10, 2018 at 9:53 am PDT
  
  With the ID* autocorrect grrr