PS4 firmware 6.10 beta disclaimers make PSN name changes sound very unappealing

Beta invites for PS4 firmware 6.10 have started going out, with those invited now reporting some of the most bizarre warnings Sony issued in the firmware's documentation.

Firmware 6.10's main addition is of course the ability for players to change their PSN names. When Sony first announced the feature earlier this month, it warned that not everything is going to play nice with the new name.

Sony said at the time that not all games on PS3, Vita, and even some PS4 games will reflect the name change. The company also said that you can expect a few other errors in certain games, but it seems the implications are much greater than many initially believed.

The 6.10 beta invites came with a long list of disclaimers, some of which are very alarming. As posted on Reset Era, and by many other players on Twitter, the list of features that could break following a name change is long.

For example, players who change their PSN name may lose progress, including saved data and other trophy and leaderboard progress. What's more, they may also lose content they paid for such as DLC and in-game currency in the games that do not support the feature.

Here's the full list of current disclaimers:

• Not all games and applications for PS4, PS3, PS Vita, and other PlayStation systems support the Online ID change feature.
• If you change your Online ID, you may lose access to content (including paid-for content) that you have acquired for your games, including content like add-ons and virtual currency.
• You may lose your progress within games, including game saved data, leaderboard data and progress toward trophies.
• Parts of your games and applications might not function properly, both online and offline.
• Your previous Online ID(s) may remain visible to you and other players in some places.

The documentation also reiterates previously announced details such as the cost for each name change, and how to revert back to the original ID. But there a few more implications not revealed initially.

In particular, Sony clarifies that should you run into issues with the new name, reverting back may not necessarily bring everything back to normal. "Changing back to your previous Online ID may not fix all issues (you may not recover all or any lost content, progress and functionality," explained Sony.

It really sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth, especially for those of us with years-old accounts and years of save files, purchases, trophy unlocks and so on. For those new to PSN, it may be worth creating a new account to avoid running into any of these problems.

It's not clear if some of these issues will be solved by the end of the beta, but the wording makes it sound like this is an unavoidable side effect of PSN name changes.