Rejoice unfortunately named PSN users! Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that PSN’s arguably most asked about feature, ID change, is set to arrive in early 2019.
Before then, however, users will be able to participate in a beta — part of the PlayStation Preview Program — available to select users who have pre-registered as testers for previous PlayStation 4 system software betas.
Users will be able to change their PSN ID however many times they like once the feature arrives in full, but they will have to pay a fee every time after the first ID change. Regular users will have to pay $9.99 USD / $9.99 CAD / €9.99 / £7.99, while PlayStation Plus subscribers only pay half that — $4.99 USD / $4.99 CAD / €4.99 / £3.99.
Upon changing their ID, players also have the option of displaying their previous ID with their new ID for friend recognition purposes. However, this is a one-time deal: once the ID change is complete, you won’t be able to go back on that decision (until, presumably, they change it again).
Unfortunately, this all comes with one major caveat: not all games support this feature.
Titles published after April 1, 2018 are guaranteed to be compatible with the PSN ID change, but the same can’t be said for those released before said date across all current PlayStation platforms — PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. Such titles will result in the player coming across various issues or errors, resulting in the user needing to switch back to their original ID (this is free, but it can only be done once during the preview program). Fortunately, this appears to only be a problem for those participating in the beta, as Sony will publish a list of compatible games released before April 1, 2018 once the ID change feature officially launches.
