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ps4pro

PSN Name Changes Are Finally Here But The Reactions Are Very Mixed

This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information

I feel as if I’ve been waiting to change my PSN name for ages now, and oh if you look at the year – it has been. Ever since assigning myself the name GreyGamer93 on my PlayStation 3 Online account back in 2006, my body would cringe whenever anybody asked for my user ID.

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Literally almost 15 years later, I can finally change my name and not feel the embarrassment while I was playing online. True, my user ID was not nearly as horrifying as others that you would see online, but it still needed to be fixed. And now that Sony is finally letting us change our Online ID’s, there’s nothing to do but scream for joy.

No longer will we (hopefully) have to look at Daddy_VaPes69 shooting you in the face in Call of Duty; the time is done when No0BSlAYEr2006 drops a building on you in Fortnite; we are all tired of playing kid-friendly multiplayer games only to see a player named Long_DonGG on the television screen… hopefully.

I say hopefully because there are actually people out there who believe that user names such as BOOBsmagee and BoOTY-B0sS are appropriate for interacting with other humans. The name change option is here so we should not be seeing stuff like this anymore, guys.

But, while the name change is here, Sony has explained that there are a few caveats to this whole name-changing business. The first change is free for everyone, which is great and all, but it turns out that a lot of games might not support your name change.

It’s not that they don’t love your new name, but instead, they won’t remember who you are, causing several games to possibly just not function as normal. Your save progress might get lost, progress towards trophies might disappear, and it actually affects some pretty big games.

The Dark Souls series, The Last of Us Remastered, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Injustice 2, NBA 2K19, and many, many more. Sony even made a nice little list of the relevant games for people to check out.

While these games aren’t technically “new” or super popular right now, it’s unfortunate that people who change their names will more than likely face some sort of issue while playing. Because of this, some folks are deciding not to change their name at all, even after waiting for such a long time.

For example, Marc with a C is a big fan of Marvel vs. Capcom, as well as God Eater 2, but thanks to the various issues, he’s not particularly happy.

On the opposite side of that, Hunter Xuman recognizes all of the caveats of the name changes, but to them, it’s worth it. Being able to finally free oneself from the name “xXBlazin420Xx” probably feels wonderful. Like such a large burden being taken off of your chest.

As someone who understands the strong emotions of being able to finally change my terrible juvenile-minded online user ID, I also wouldn’t care about the selection of games not working or running into errors.

As long as I can have a normal name, without my date of birth and “gamer” in the title, I would be eternally grateful to Sony, which I am.

It’s not all bad though, there are still tons of people who are willing to take the risks after all this time of waiting:

https://twitter.com/ERW_87/status/1115973495589101568

https://twitter.com/ggsGoose/status/1115971144165855235

 

Anyway, good luck on deciding your new online persona. Is this what a mid-life crisis is for PlayStation gamers? I can start fresh with a new face, new name, new body. Dump the old me and forget all about that stuff that happened in the past. Sorry. It’s been 13 years – a lot has happened.

If you do decide to change your name, just check the list of supported titles and make sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot.


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Author
Image of Greysun Morales
Greysun Morales
Greysun was formerly the Features Editor at Twinfinite and wrote for the site from 2017 to 2020. He eats ramen 12 times a week and will never get tired of it. Playing Games Since: 1993, Favorite Genres: Action-Adventure, JRPG, Platformers, and Anything With Ramen