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So WHY is Sony charging us for PSN name changes?

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Yinyangfooey

Yinyangfooey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,815
I mean look at these goddamn hoops you have to go through:
  • Potentially losing access to purchased DLC, including virtual currency
  • Potentially losing game progress, saves, and trophies
  • Potentially having online functions not work properly
  • Your previous ID still being visible
  • Not being able to fix any issues even when you revert to your old name
And Sony has the gall to charge us $9.99 ($4.99 PS+)? I know that Microsoft does the same thing, but at least it's an actual fucking name change that won't fuck with your account's legacy. I know I'm answering my own question, but the only reason why Sony is getting away with this is because they're the market leader this generation.
 
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Kyoufu

Kyoufu

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,582
Do you actually lose access to purchased items or are they just covering themselves if something happens?
 
Deepwater

Deepwater

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,349
Because infrastructure often doesn't have many revenue flows, and probably to prevent abuse.

Also because they know people will pay.
 
Cess007

Cess007

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,116
B.C., Mexico
All the things you've listed are not thing you've go through. Several people have changed their names and have lost nothing. In the beta, you may run into any of those troubles, but it's a possibility. It's still mind boggling that any of that might happen, but so far, I don't have read of anyone who has lost something.
 
Pein

Pein

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,235
NYC
Correct me if I'm wrong but why don't people just use a new account? PSN plus is system wide, right?
 

Deleted member 9971

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
9,743
Atleast it's free the first go but yeah it's meh why not make a 2 or 4 week time limit between changes.
 
OP
OP
Yinyangfooey

Yinyangfooey

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Oct 27, 2017
1,815

Deleted member 4372

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
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First time free. How many times u need to chsnge ur name sheeeit dude. Just keep your name then. The bitching never stops its exhausting
 
Kolx

Kolx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,505
Maybe wait until the beta and see if these things actually occur or if they're just covering themselves just in case? first time is free and 2nd time they charge you because MS is doing it also so they can get away with it.
 
Juraash

Juraash

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,362
Kyoufu said:
Do you actually lose access to purchased items or are they just covering themselves if something happens?
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Believe it's the later. And they could change those disclaimers when the service actually goes live for everyone. As far as I know, that language pertains to the beta specifically,at least for now.

As for the topic, the first one is free...so who the hell cares? Most name change features I've seen have a charge associated with them and 10 bucks is pretty standard. Make your free one count and you never have to pay a cent.
 
Flandy

Flandy

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,445
It's in beta so I'm not really sure we should hold the negatives against it at the moment. Plus from what I saw in the thread a few days ago it didn't appear that anybody was having any issues. Nobody lost anything from what I saw. I imagine some older games wouldn't reflect the new name but most of the ones I saw people try in the thread worked fine.
 
PeakPointMatrix

PeakPointMatrix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,099
Yinyangfooey said:
I mean look at these goddamn hoops you have to go through:
  • Losing access to purchased DLC, including virtual currency
  • Losing game progress, saves, and trophies
  • Potentially having online functions not work properly
  • Your previous ID still being visible
  • Not being able to fix any issues even when you revert to your old name
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Click to shrink...
Did I miss something? If you change your name, all this shit will happen? Who the fuck would trade all that for a new name!?
 
androvsky

androvsky

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,507
Yinyangfooey said:
Here's the thing. If you decide to revert back to your old name in order to get an old game to work, does that mean you can still go back to your new name when you're done playing the old game? Or did you already use up your one free name change?
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iirc, during the beta you can revert to your old name for free.
 
LossAversion

LossAversion

The Merchant of ERA
Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,704
The first time is free.

There are a lot of obnoxious consequences that come from allowing people to change their names without any restrictions. They could just enforce a time limit or a yearly limit for changing your name but they don't owe you the ability to do so for free. It's a service that you are free to ignore if you don't think it is worth the asking price. And again... the first time is free.
 
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,032
UK
Choose wisely

That said, they should let everyone change their name one time for free

They can charge after that if they want, if you don't pick a shit name or your not the kind of person who wants to change it all the time for the sake of it, it shoudn't affect you
 

Deleted member 41931

User requested account closure
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Apr 10, 2018
3,744
Because Xbox has been for awhile now. Why offer something for free when you can charge for it and not have to worry that much about backlash due to precedent.
 
$10 Bagel

$10 Bagel

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,481
dietpepsi said:
First time free. How many times u need to chsnge ur name sheeeit dude. Just keep your name then. The bitching never stops its exhausting
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I mean if you change your name and can lose access to purchased digital content that's a pretty big deal... It doesn't matter if the first time is free, there's still an intention to charge for a service that has no business charging customers when there's so many things that may or may not work.
 
aiswyda

aiswyda

Member
Aug 11, 2018
3,093
PeakPointMatrix said:
Did I miss something? If you change your name, all this shit will happen? Who the fuck would trade all that for a new name!?
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They're not guaranteed to happen, just possibilities I believe. My SO changed one of his extra accounts to see if it'd mess with anything--he didn't notice anything. Even tried out a game not on Sony's list and he still had his levels and unlocks.
 
UsoEwin

UsoEwin

Banned
Jul 14, 2018
2,063
I mean, the dlc and saves things are probably why they are rolling it out in beta form first.
 
PeakPointMatrix

PeakPointMatrix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,099
androvsky said:
Those things could happen. In the beta. I'm not aware of anyone actually losing paid content yet.
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aiswyda said:
They're not guaranteed to happen, just possibilities I believe. My SO changed one of his extra accounts to see if it'd mess with anything--he didn't notice anything. Even tried out a game not on Sony's list and he still had his levels and unlocks.
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Yinyangfooey should clarify this in his OP, it's incredibly misleading, as well as the fact that you only pay after the first free change.
 
Razgriz417

Razgriz417

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,110
I'm wondering why they even bother giving the option when there's that many potential issues. Wouldn't it make more sense to do name changes at the beginning of a generation?

That being said first change is free and you get charged afterwards, doesn't seem like much of an issue to me
 
AztecComplex

AztecComplex

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,371
Deepwater said:
Because infrastructure often doesn't have many revenue flows, and probably to prevent abuse.

Also because they know people will pay.
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It's to prevent abuse. Changing names constantly would put unnecessary strain on Sony's infrastructure.

Besides they're still letting you do it once for free. If you're foolish enough to change your name once after a decade stuck with yours and you manage to fuck your again you deserve to pay for your third name (not the second one, that's still free).
 
A. D. Skinner

A. D. Skinner

Banned
Nov 13, 2017
653
Because you're supposed to change it if you really want or need to, not just every day when you feel like it, like every other social media platform.

It's just there to stop that, nothing malicious.
 
Fularu

Fularu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,609
They are getting away with it because they can. And it has little to do witht beeing market leader and everything to do with discouraging people from doing it all the time and the hassle it creates
 
Somni

Somni

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
942
From what I understand
1. First time is free
2. People are perfectly willing to pay for it.

Edit: I'm assuming it's meant to also disincentivize constant name changing.
 
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nextJin

nextJin

Member
Mar 17, 2018
455
Georgia
They are letting you change your name for free the first time. They don't really have a choice with those possible issues because of a decade or more of a screwed up ID system.

That said, all games after like April 2018 iirc are using the new system so from PS5 on should be fine.

What I want to know is if they are going purge a decades worth of abandoned names/accounts to open up all those taken names.
 
Bessy67

Bessy67

Member
Oct 29, 2017
11,584
Just like MS, they're doing it because they don't want people changing their names all the time
 
newmoneytrash

newmoneytrash

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,981
Melbourne, Australia
Loveless said:
Also the fact that MS got away with it last gen and so Sony thought they can too.
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It sucks that Microsoft also do it, but at least their name changes don't come with a billion caveats. This is really undefendable but people still gonna defend it

MasterSummerSmith462 said:
Stick with a good name from the start
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PSN is well over a decade old, a lot of users were children when they first made their account and aren't going to have that kind of foresight
 
Doctor_Thomas

Doctor_Thomas

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,652
Cost me nothing to change and I have no reason to change again.
No issues since changing.

A solid update THAT'S STILL IN BETA.
 
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