PSN online ID change feature now live on PS4, but there’s a catch

The long-awaited PSN online ID changing feature has arrived on PlayStation 4, but you may want to think twice before taking advantage of it.

Sony has officially rolled out the long-awaited PSN online ID changing feature, allowing you to finally rid yourself of that embarrassing ID that you’ve had since middle school. The new feature is now available on PlayStation 4 with the ability to change it via a web browser coming as well.

Finally, you no longer have to be recognized as “xXslayer4lyfeXx.” You can now change it to something that will also be lame 10 or 20 years from now.

Changing your ID is free the first time and will cost $9.99 each time thereafter. PlayStation Plus members will only have to pay $4.99 each time after the first change.

While the ability to change your PSN name from something embarrassing is a dream come true for many gamers, it does come with a pretty notable drawback; not every game fully supports the name-change feature. As Sony notes:

"All PS4 games originally published on or after April 1, 2018 have been developed to support the online ID change feature. However, since they have not all been specifically tested with the feature, we cannot guarantee that they will support it."

Thankfully, Sony has put together a list of PlayStation 4 games that have been tested. The list is broken down into three categories: games with no known issues; games with issues identified that Sony doesn’t consider critical to the gameplay experience but you should consider anyway; and games with critical issues that Sony considers “fundamental to the game play experience.”

That third list of games is the one that will have most people worried, as it could result in loss of in-game currency, loss of game progress and parts of the game even not working properly. Thankfully, the list of games with critical issues isn’t too long and is comprised mostly of older titles.

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The games “with issues identified” is a little more worrisome if only for the fact that it’s longer and has newer and more popular titles. This list includes Grand Theft Auto V, Bloodborne, Dark Souls II and III, MLB The Show 17, Uncharted 4, Warframe and Titanfall 2 to name just a few.

The full list of games that have already been tested and work properly can be found here. Moving forward, any and all PS4 games originally published on or after April 1, 2018 have been developed to support the online ID change feature; however, they have not been successfully tested yet, which is why they aren’t guaranteed to be fully compatible with the feature.

If a game isn’t on any of three lists, it has not been tested yet and may experience issues if you change your online ID.

If you do decide to change your name, you’ll have the option to display your old ID next to the new one in your profile for 30 days so that your friends know who you are. You will also be able to revert back to your old ID, for free, for whatever reason. Also, the older ID that you change from will remain only available to you so you don’t have to worry about someone new taking it if you change.

If you do wish to change your PSN ID, simply follow these instructions. With the ability to now change your PSN ID, what’s next on the list of features you want to see?