A couple of days ago, a Mexican PlayStation user brought attention to his woes on Reddit where he claimed that Sony had wrongly banned his PSN account by confusing a common nick name in his country with an offensive word for Jews.
The user, whose real name is Enrique, explained that the word K*** is a commonly used nick name for Enrique in the region, which he not only uses as his PSN ID but also on his sports jerseys. After over a year of using his ID, and spending “a couple hundred if not a thousand or more” on games, Sony banned his ID. What followed was a migraine-inducing back-and-forth session with Sony’s support staff that went nowhere.
Enrique said that he was willing to change his PSN ID and understood that it caused offense (something he says he had to Google to realize) but Sony wouldn’t budge. However, his story started making rounds online, and was picked up by several websites, which prompted a change in tune.
Sony not only reinstated his account but also allowed him to keep his current ID.
According to Enrique, a Sony representative said:
First off, I’d like to apologize for everything. We caught wind and saw what you posted and said online. And I can assure you we got to work on it as soon as possible. We set up a quick meeting at the office and trust me, we had an interesting conversation, especially as it’s Thanksgiving. But I’m glad to inform you your account is fully reactivated. I’d like to apologize on behalf of all of us. You can keep your current online ID as we realized we made a mistake.
While Enrique’s story had a happy ending, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of such an issue. Back in 2016, Sony banned a Saudi Arabian user’s PSN ID as it contained the word “Jihad,” which is his real name. In that case, Sony had the user change his ID, again, after the story started trending on web-based forums.
PSN ID change feature will certainly be a welcome addition to PlayStation.
Now Loading - PSN Name Changes October 2018
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Now Loading - PSN Name Changes
Will you be changing your PSN name now that Sony has announced the feature?
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Lucas White
My gut reaction is to go ahead and do it, if only because the option will be available, and I can change it to match my personal branding or whatever. However, I’m cautious due to the announcement mentioning errors and such with older games, so I’ll probably hold out to see what that means in more detail. Luckily my PSN ID isn’t “xXx_NarutoCloudGoku_420” or whatever so I’m not powering through years of lingering shame like so many others seem to be.
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Annette Polis
If only someone in Japan hadn't registered it first! They are still using it so I won't be making any changes to my account. (PS. Hey Sony, when will you let me change my country of residence?)
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Blake Grundman
My PSN name will never change. It has been my online handle for over two decades, long before it was ever my PSN ID. That isn’t going to change anytime soon.
I wonder if my wife would be pissed if I had it etched into my headstone... -
Cameron Teague
I love my PSN name, so I see no reason to ever change it.
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Chandler Wood
I go back and forth. On the one hand, my name does have some meaning behind it, on the other, it hasn't been my active nickname in a number of years now (plus it has numbers in it, which also do mean something, but I don't know if I like).
I may change it to match a more updated username, but I'll have to see how it all plays out once the feature rolls out wide. If it doesn't look all that stable, I'm okay keeping my original one.
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Janet Garcia
Nope. I don't game online much or have many PSN friends to begin with.
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Jenni Lada
It is nice to know the option will be there, but I won't be changing mine either. I already know it and frankly, it is so undesirable that I do not have to worry about someone wanting to steal it. I already had someone try to steal my Gmail address, probably due to it being short and having no numbers. I don't want to have to worry about someone trying to take my PSN account too.
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Keri Honea
Totally changing it so it matches the rest of my online monikers.
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Zarmena Khan
My PSN ID is simply my name spelled backwards so I see no reason to change it. But I'd eventually like the option to change my country. I moved a while back and it sucks when I can't redeem certain codes that come with my locally purchased games.
