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2019/04

You Can Finally Change You PlayStation Network ID, But It’s A Little Risky

It’s been a long, long time coming, but anyone who wants to change their PlayStation Network ID can finally drop xXxDarkBlade69xXx and replace it with something that falls a little more in line with their current sensibilities.

I probably shouldn’t make fun of PSN ID names but, let’s face it, there are plenty of us out there who picked an ID about a decade ago and maybe we don’t want to keep using it these days. As of now, you can finally make that alteration. Just as a heads up, only your first ID change is free of charge. If you want to keep changing your name, it’ll cost you $10 each time.

In order to change your PSN ID, just pop onto the PlayStation 4, head on over to Settings, click on Account Management, then Account Information, then Profile, then Online ID. From there, you’ll be walked through the process of giving your handle a facelift. You can also make the change by heading to your PlayStation Network account online. From there, click on “PSN Profile” from the menu, hit “Edit” and try your hand at a new name.

Just keep in mind that there are a hell of a lot of people with PSN ID tags at this point, so you might have some trouble finding a name that hasn’t already been taken.

Before you do any of that, though, you might want to take a few warnings from Sony into account. Since changing your ID hasn’t been a part of their gaming ecosystem for many, many years, swapping your name may have some unforeseen consequences. They’ve tested the hell out of the name swap but, still, they’re warning that some issues may arise.

For starters, your old ID may still appear in some games or applications. While that’s not too bad, the rest of the possible issues are a bit on the frightening side. You may lose save game progress, for instance, or leaderboard data/Trophies might be lost. Sony also warns that parts of games may no longer function properly if you’ve been playing them with one ID and switch to another. Hell, you may even lose access to some games altogether if you make the change.

You can read up on all of the precautions and check out a list of games that have been tested and are known to handle the ID change fine by heading to the official PlayStation website.

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