The most-requested PlayStation 4 feature is live — here’s how to use it

Sony is finally giving PlayStation 4 owners a long-requested feature: the ability to change their PlayStation Network (PSN) IDs.
PSN IDs are essentially online usernames on the PS4 – a holdover from the PlayStation 3 era of Sony game consoles.
Because of the way that PSN was built, there was no way to change your PSN ID without losing everything tied to it: game purchases, saves, trophy data, friends, and much more.
Starting on April 10, PS4 users can finally change their PSN names. Here’s how!

Sony is finally giving users one of the most requested PlayStation 4 features: the ability to change their online name.

The PlayStation 4’s online service, PlayStation Network (PSN), hasn’t allowed its tens of millions of users to change their usernames since its inception on Sony’s previous PlayStation console.

That means any games purchased, friends made, and cloud saves uploaded are tied to whatever PSN ID users signed up with originally. Choosing a new one previously meant losing all that stuff, going all the way back to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. Bummer!

But that all changed this week, and we’ve created a quick walkthrough of how to change your PSN name:

1. Turn on your PlayStation 4 and navigate to the Settings.

It’s the highlighted toolbox above, on the far right, next to the power menu.

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2. Open settings, and then open Account Management:

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3. Next up is to click on Account Information …

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4. Then Profile …

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5. Then Online ID:

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6. After clicking through a couple of warning screens (we’ll get to those in a minute), there’s one final step: Re-confirming your email and password for PSN.

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7. It’s time to choose a new name! What’s it gonna be?

Unfortunately, “Bananas” was already taken.

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Sony offers a list of totally bizarre suggestions for new PSN names, but you could also try out whatever you want – the tool will tell you whether or not it’s available, as you can see above.

Of note: You only get one free PlayStation Network ID change. Subsequent changes cost $10 apiece, intentionally priced to keep users from constantly switching their names.

Perhaps you’d prefer to do it through a web browser? You can!

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All you have to do to change your PSN ID through the web is head over to the PlayStation Network website right here, sign in, click on Profile along the options on the left, and click the Edit button next to your Online ID.

It otherwise operates identically to the way you do it on a PlayStation 4 console itself.

BEWARE: If you elect to change your PlayStation Network ID, your experience with some games could be impacted.

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Due to the way that PlayStation Network was originally built, and the way that Sony implemented PSN ID changes across the last few years, there are potential issues with certain PlayStation 4 games if you choose to change your PSN ID.

Sony slowly rolled out the ability to change PSN IDs – which was first announced last year – so that it could test for potential issues. What kind of issues?

Here’s what Sony says:

-Your previous Online ID may remain visible to you and other players in some areas. -You may lose progress within games, including game saved data, leaderboard data, and progress towards Trophies. -Parts of your game and applications may not function properly both online and offline. -You may lose access to content (including paid-for content) that you may have acquired for your games including content like add-ons and virtual currency.

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