Sony to Drop PSN Branding Later This Year, New Report Claims

This might explain the out-of-nowhere PS3 update that came out this week.

I’ll wait to see what the new name and logo become, but I find this a bit unusual. Despite “PSN” being an awkward and old-fashioned moniker, there’s value in name recognition and sometimes a change only confuses people and backfires.

That’s good, I couldn’t say what PlayStation Network stands for nowadays. Online multiplayer? Store for digital games?

More interesting is what the new name will be. Because I don’t see an existing term which would fit better. PS Plus for online gaming, PS Store for the digital store?

I feel like PSN is a relic from the PS3 era.

PlayStation Eshop.

Drop the price too while you're at it

PlayStation 2nd Entry Fee

To be fair I haven't mentioned PSN in years, but I don't rally use the online functionality beyond the Store and Trophies.

@Oram77 PSN/PS Plus is incredibly cheap. I'm not being sarcastic either. The amount of value that you get with this service (assuming that you are a regular gamer) is huge.

I just checked and under "Settings" > "Network" and in that box to the right it just says "PlayStation" instead of "PlayStation Network". Also, the View Service Status page also has no mention of "PSN" etc.

Maybe they won't give it a new name and instead it'll just be "PlayStation". I personally can't think of a good replacement anyway.

Might be Smart to stack some plus up, sounds like they're about to jack up the prices

@Oram77 most likely going to be the opposite

They will probably just call it PlayStation

@dskatter It does not.

That PS3 update was for the latest BlueRay encription keys. Nothing more.

Maybe it's a change to Sony Store, Sony Network, etc.?

@LiamCroft
"...the PS2 shipped with online network features"

I remember having to buy a network adapter for the PS2.

Also allowed the use of your own hard disk drive, which was wild at the time.

I'd like to see them use PSX( or PS eXchange). A throw back to the PS1 and still has the recognition to know that it's Playstation.

@Max_the_German It's incredibly simple. It stands for all online aspects of the PlayStation ecosystem.

Changing the name is stupid. There's nothing wrong whatsoever with PSN/PlayStation Network. The name covers all aspects of PlayStation's online services from the store to online play.

Will it just become PlayStation? PlayStation Online Services? Ew

I mean it’s the network for PlayStation so PlayStation Network is just being called what it is.

That makes total sense to me but understand the desire to mix things up to make it look like some kind of progress.

@dodgykebaab Source?

@Oram77 yeah it's not bad price except for premium which doesn't give you enough value in the classics category, but my argument is that it's going to go up in price once they merge everything

@dskatter Mayonnaise.
Thats my favourite.

@ElectricWizard I still have mine set up with the IDE HDD cracked to allow roms for older games. Great for tinkerers if you can get your hands on one.

ohh if they turn back to first PSN UI from PS3.... simple and functional....

It's a small thing but it feels like shearing more off of PlayStation's identity.

We should be reading announcements about forthcoming first party single player games, another thing they used to be known for, but we get stuff like this instead.

@dodgykebaab I see what you did there!

But seriously, has that been confirmed anywhere about the blu-specific update?

@djlard Yeah the XMB was a decent UI overall. There is nothing as clever as shaking the controller to make the particles fly in the PS5 UI. It's such a small thing but it demonstrates the attention to detail, showing off the then-new SIXAXIS gyros.

PlayStation Live lmao

But fr this is dumb. Not a bad thing. Just a dumb and pointless thing. I said the same thing when Microsoft dropped the "Xbox Live" name, and I stand by it. Don't change what it's always been called unless there a concrete reason to do so.

aw man what about all the people who got PSN logo tattoos

@ilyn
Yeah, would dig it out but have no room to set it up - currently have a Wii U, Dreamcast, Series X and a PS4 Pro taking up all the space 😄

@zekepliskin consoles were more creative instead of corporate back then. i’m still shocked that the ps5 has a quirky design though, i thought it was just gonna be a generic black box

This is so future generations will never find out how bad PSN was at times lol.

@dskatter It seems like they do annual Blu Ray key updates. I think the last update was around a year ago

@Th3solution There won’t be a new name, I bet on it. It’ll just be a “PlayStation” account going forward, and everything PSN was will just be a part of the wider “PlayStation” service. Timing is also curious. Who knows, maybe there’s no PS6 and the next one will just be “PlayStation” - an all encompassing machine and/or streaming service for games.

And watch peope still call it psn. Don't change what ain't broke.

I think it should be the “ Super Playstream And Service Matrix” or SPASM. That would be awesome new marketing: “ hey there bro what are you doing today?” “ I’m bout to jump on that SPASM and blast some goons” “yeah I was just about to SPASM when you called”. That would be great.

Is this a sneaky way of shutting down the PS3/Vita stores.....?

PlayStation Network really does what it says on the tin! What are they going to replace it with that's supposed to be better?

I thought this name was phased out years ago, I remember reading about that or maybe it was for the store only?

I haven’t see the term PSN used officially since years.

@ProfessorNiggle Lol that'd make it POS instead of PSN..a rather unfortunate abbreviation to say the least. 🤣

@VeldinX If PS6 is a streaming box they'll lose most of their customers. Despite what the pro streaming box gamers say about it being the wave of the future, the vast majority of gamers are still opposed to supporting such a device.

I never liked the yellow D Pad branding so i would be happy to see it go. As for the naming, not sure they will go to crazy, we could be just looking at PlayStation Store & PlayStation Online. Simple but very clean and easy to understand and market. Just please kill of the Yellow D Pad.

They should call it Play Pass

@Americansamurai1 If you have a Portal it's definitely worth the small increase for that tier imo.

Playstation Online Retail Network, or PORN for short

@TensuraFan7 Agreed. Digital-only is one thing (which I also don’t support quite yet) but streaming only is a complete no.

It doesn’t matter. Will still call it PSN.