Before you go ahead and change your PSN name, you might want to check the list of games with known issues (including a few big online titles).
Sony has, after years of prevaricating, unleashed PSN online ID changes upon the world. Now you can get rid of all those 69s, 420s, and other embarrassing embellishments from your PSN name. Or you know, add them in if you’re a 13-year-old boy. But for the most part, the PSN name changes are a benevolent feature that allows people to undo childish mistakes.
(And if you’re wondering how to do it, how much it costs, and any other catches involved in the process, we’ve written a handy guide.)
Not all games are compatible with PSN name changes, however.
For starters, PS3 and Vita games don’t work at all. Not even a little bit. You’re stuck with your old IDs on those platforms, but given Sony has dropped free games for the platforms on PS Plus (and built the last ever hardware), that won’t be a problem forever.
But more importantly, there are a number of games that have known issues, or simply won’t work properly at all after you’ve changed your PSN name.
The general rule of thumb is that PS4 games originally released after April 1st, 2018 should be fine. These are all games that have been developed with the PS4’s latest tools and standards, so should present no issues with name changes.
Games that were released before this date, or remastered games from earlier platforms (like The Last of Us or Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag) may have issues. And even some games released after the cutoff date are known to have issues, too.
Here’s the current list – at the time of writing – of games with known issues.
Critical issues
- Everybody’s Golf
- Just Dance 2017
- LittleBigPlanet 3
- MLB 14 The Show
- MLB The Show 16
- MLB The Show 15
- Onrush
- The Golf Club 2
- Worms Battlegrounds
Critical issues are defined by Sony as:
- User may lose in-game currency whether paid for or earned;
- Loss of game progress, including scores and progress toward trophy unlocking; and
- Loss of user-generated content or parts of the game may not function properly, both online and offline.
And as a result, Sony does not recommend you change your PSN name if you regularly play these games.
Known issues
- Absolver: Downfall
- Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag
- Big City Stories
- Bloodborne
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Crossout
- Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin
- Dark Souls III
- Dragon Quest Builders
- EA Sports FIFA 17 Standard Edition
- Gauntlet: Slayer Edition
- God Eater 2 Rage Burst
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Gundam Versus
- Guns Up!
- Injustice 2 – Standard Edition
- Killzone Shadow Fall
- Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite
- MLB The Show 17
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy
- Naruto Storm 4: Road to Boruto Expansion
- NBA 2K19
- PlayStationVR Worlds
- Rock Band 4
- Rocksmith 2014 Edition – Remastered
- The Last of Us Remastered
- Titanfall 2
- Trackmania Turbo
- Trove
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
- Uno
- Warframe
- WipEout Omega Collection
Games with known issues are defined by Sony as:
- Previous online ID(s) may remain visible to you and other players, or the online ID is no longer visible in some areas in a game title (in-game rankings, leaderboards, etc). For some game titles, the online ID will automatically update if you sign out and then sign back into the game or when various gameplay activity is performed after sign-in;
- User accounts on PlayStation may be unlinked from game accounts. Linking accounts again may restore the original linkage; and
- Certain game settings may be initialized to their default state (audio setting, controller setting, etc). For some game titles, settings may be recovered if you sign out and then sign back into the game.
You can attempt to play these games after changing your PSN name, but you may need to revert your online ID back if you run into issues.
At first glance, Grand Theft Auto V is the biggest issue on that list. Rockstar’s game has a seemingly never-ending lease of life thanks to its online mode, so you’ll probably want to hold off on the name change if you’re a fan of GTA Online. Sports games like Everybody’s Golf, The Golf Club 2, and FIFA 17 – which while older, still have big online userbases – also look like red flags for PSN name changes.
Tread lightly, folks.
