PlayStation Network Could Offer Name Change Next Year
Gamers on Sony's PlayStation Network may soon have the option to change their account name. Sony's Shawn Layden said in an interview that he hopes to have the feature ready for the 2018 PlayStation Experience event.
This is great news for players who are currently stuck with a PlayStation Network handle that they regret, perhaps including those who are still carrying around a too-distinct name from their teenage days into their adult, working years, as Engadget observes.
"The elves at the North Pole have been working on it," Layden jokes in his interview after the PlayStation Experience keynote presentation, hinting at the difficulties the seemingly simple feature presents.
From a technical perspective, all the changes that have to be made throughout the PlayStation Network system when a player changes their name are "more complex than you think," Layden said in the interview with Gamespot. The PSN team is not ready to give up too easily, though, even if it takes them a year to figure it out.
"I hope we'll see events occur that you won't have to ask me that question next PSX," Layden said, hinting that he has reason to expect that they will be ready with the option by the time the PlayStation Experience 2018 rolls around.
Even back in 2015, Sony Worldwide Studios chief Shuhei Yoshida said that PSN developers were already looking at changing PSN names. At the time, they were not sure if the option was even possible.
"We are aware that lots of people are asking for the feature and our engineers have been looking into what they can do. As soon as we know, we'll let you know. But as of today, we don't ever know if we can ever do it properly," he said back then in a Twitter question-and-answer session, as quoted by PlayStation Lifestyle.
