Players looking to change their PlayStation Network ID may finally get their wish. Looking at the Unreal Engine 4.14 patch notes, it appears that some of the updates are specifically referencing changes to Sony’s online service, specifically pertaining to PSN ID.
While nothing has been confirmed by the format holder as of yet, it does raise some speculation that the feature may be implemented in a future PS4 system update.
The specific patch notes are listed as (via NeoGAF):
- Refactored the PlayStation 4 Online Subsystem engine plugin to support PS4 SDK version 4.008.061
- Deprecated the use of “Sce Np Online Id”, replacing it with “Sce NP Account Id”, as per Sony’s recommendation. Online users are now exclusively identified by their “Sce Np Account Id”
- Simplified the handling of unique net IDs across the PS4 online subsystem
- Switched from “Np Toolkit” to “Np Toolkit2” to support the new APIs which work with “Sce NP Account Id”
- Added asynchronous name resolution to convert between “Sce Np Online Id” and “Sce Np Account Id” using Sony’s ID mapper web interface
- For PS4 online users, the “To String” and “Get Bytes” functions in “Unique Net Id” now return the user’s “Sce Np Account Id”
- Previously these functions returned the user’s “Sce Np Online Id”. Any custom online code or services backend will need to handle identifying users by their “Sce Np Account ID” as according to Sony’s recommendations.
- If required, the “Sce Np Online Id” for local users and friends can be obtained via the “Get Display Name” interface in “Online User”
In Japan, PSN users are able to change the display name everyone sees, while their username remains the same.
Stay tuned to PSU for more info as we get it.