PSN Name Change Could Have Been Available 12 Years Ago

The code to allow PlayStation users to change their PSN Name (ID) Change was available 12 years ago, but higher-ups at Sony deemed it “unnecessary” and that code was never pushed to live, according to Naughty Dog’s Anthony Vaccaro.

Sony has just announced it’s doing a new preview program for PlayStation 4 so players can test the PSN ID change right away. The news has been long anticipated and this is finally happening after years of wait.

When we say it’s been “years of wait” we really mean it. As revealed by Naughty Dog’s Anthony Vaccaro, someone at Sony had already proposed the feature back in 2006, but apparently, some executives found it useless or not requested.

“My mom was the Senior Database Administrator who helped build the PSN in 2006,” Vaccaro said, who serves as an environment artist at Naughty Dog for games like Uncharted 3, 4, Lost Legacy, The Last of Us 1 and 2.

“A few months after the PSN released she wrote and tested the code to allow for username changes. Higher ups deemed it “unnecessary” and was never pushed to live. 12 years later here we are.”

So this much-anticipated news comes just 12 years later, years where Microsoft has allowed its users to basically do the same thing from Xbox 360 to Xbox One. Now, finally, we have a preview program to start testing the functionality.

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.

Again, that’s neat, but we can’t stop thinking about how cool it would have been if Sony released the feature twelve years ago, so that they now could have focused on some serious innovation for PS4 users.

UPDATE

The tweet is no longer available, but we managed to get a screenshot of it all thanks to the webcache.

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