PSN Name Change Could Cut Off Access to DLC, Stop Games from Working

Game Rant

By Jasmine Henry

Published Oct 24, 2018

Sony warns that the PSN name change feature may lead to major issues, cutting off access to paid-for DLC and preventing some games from working properly.

Earlier this month, Sony delighted fans by officially announcing the PlayStation Network name change feature which would allow players to edit their PSN IDs. While the company did warn that the feature may lead to some issues, a new list of disclaimers reveals just how major these issues could be.

Sony is currently rolling out the beta for the PS4 firmware 6.10 update, and this includes a list of possible issues caused by someone changing their PSN ID. The PS4 platform holder warns that players "may lose access to content (including paid-for content) that you have acquired for your games" and this includes DLC expansions as well as virtual currencies.

Additionally, Sony says that players could potentially lose their progress within a game, including "game saved data, leaderboard data and progress toward trophies." Sony even reveals that some games may stop functioning properly–and it's not just online and multiplayer that may be affected, as offline modes may stop working, too.

The company has previously confirmed that it will mostly be older games that will be affected by this, and that most new, major PS4 games will support the feature. That means that save data for this year's PS4 exclusives should be safe, but DLC for a long-forgotten indie game that released when the PS4 launched in 2013 may not work properly.

As Sony explained when it announced the PSN name change feature, it will allow players to revert back to their old PSN ID one time, for whatever reason. However, the platform holder explains that this may not fix all of the problems introduced by the name change and "you may not recover all or any lost content, progress and functionality."

Understandably, some PS4 players are saying that they will be steering clear of the PSN name change feature until Sony can confirm that these issues have been ironed out. While users get one change for free, any additional changes will cost money. As such, few users want to risk spending money only to potentially have years of progress completed erased with no way to recover it.

Others, though, are hopeful that the PS4 update beta will help Sony to solve these issues and find workarounds for them. The PSN name change feature will remain in beta until it is fully rolled out to all players in early 2019.

Source: ResetEra