PlayStation users might finally be able to change their PlayStation Network names in the future after the idea was hinted at during the opening events of PlayStation Experience. Sony Interactive Entertainment America CEO Shawn Laydan was asked recently in an interview about the name-changing feature for PlayStation players.
He first joked about it and said that elves were hard at work on the feature, but he then admitted that implementing the technology wasn’t quite as easy as it seemed. When pressed for details on the subject, Laydan said that he had hopes that players would be able to easily change their PSN name in the future, perhaps by next year. He didn’t give a timeframe on when the feature would be available to PlayStation users, but he did say that he hopes similar questions won’t have to be asked during next year’s PlayStation Experience, a hopeful indicator that the name-changing tech would be implemented sometime within the next year.
Looking to other platforms for comparison, changing names has been a feature that other systems and games have offered for a while now. PlayStation’s big competitor, Xbox, for example, has had the feature for a while now with Xbox users being able to change their names for the past couple of years. It starts off free with users getting one shot to change their name without any cost to them, but you’ll have to give Microsoft a cut each time you want to change your name after that.
Other individual games like League of Legends simply require a fee each time you want to change your name, and while it’s unknown how PlayStation will structure the feature if it ever goes live, it’ll likely be some model similar to the ones already in place. The fee might seem like a hassle, but it definitely dissuades players from changing their name repeatedly to mimic their favorite games or the day’s trend.
Sony will have their hands full during PlayStation Experience with other reveals, so while viewers probably won’t hear any more about the question during the event, they can hope for progress to be made on the feature within the next year.