PlayStation Reportedly Dropping PlayStation Network Branding by September 2026 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 18 March 2026 / 4,044 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment will reportedly drop the "PlayStation Network" and "PSN" branding by September 2026, according to an email sent to developers seen by Insider Gaming.
"We’d like to inform you that Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has strategically decided to phase out the terms 'PlayStation Network' and 'PSN' across our platform in order to properly capture the breadth of our evolving digital services. What’s changing and timeline," reads the email sent to developers.
"The upcoming changes are purely visual and will not introduce any technical alterations to our offerings. To simplify and unify branding, the terms 'PlayStation Network' and 'PSN' will be phased out across all SIE assets by September 2026. All features currently associated with PSN, including core network features such as friends, multiplayer, and trophies, will remain unaffected and available to players. You’ll be notified ahead of changes coinciding with the Technical Requirements Checklist (TRC) update in the fall of 2026.
"Note: PS5 DevNet access is required to view TRC documentation. At that time, you’ll need to align with the updated TRC and branding guidelines to ensure the removal of PSN instances from all future releases, assets, and external service interfaces."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Just as Meta is still called Facebook, and X is still called Twitter, I'm betting this too will be called PSN for many, many years to come no matter what Sony does.
There's people that still call the PS1 the PSX😂
Call it the "Sony Network" or don't change anything.
Whats the alternative name?
Did you know? John is actually the English translation of the Koine Greek name Jesus. The name means “God saves.”
Where did you hear that? It’s widely considered to be of Hebrew origin.
From google:
The name John has its origins in the Hebrew name Yochanan, which means "God is gracious." It is derived from the Hebrew elements "Yah," referring to the Hebrew God, and "chanan," meaning "to be gracious."
Oops I mixed it up for Joshua. (Jah - sua = YHWH + saves.) My bad… IDK why I always do that lol.
I was wondering if they will end up sticking with just Playstation Plus, use it as a generic term to anything related to Playstation online.
"Log into Playstation Plus to access that multiplayer mode"
The problem is there is no free PS+ tier, so that would not make sense when playing free to play online games like Genshin or Fortnite, as you don't need PS+ at all but you'll need to be logged into your Playstation online account (current PSN) or you can't access it and play it.
Playstation Store is just it and no other naming can be found inside or permeatting it too, but also demand you to be logged into a PSN account and be online.
So I dunno, fells like they do need a named and address it, it can be as simply as just calling it what it is, online a Playstation account, or simply PS Online, but I do feel like Sony will want to have a proper brand like they had PSN for it.
Network is actually quiet an ancient sounding name by now, it used to be a cool way to call online stuff but it feels more like a business thing than a modern thing. Still, simply letting it be PSN, like PS1, PS2, PSP, etc, should be the best option, everybody already calls it that and you can just short the "Network" forever to just actual docummentation but keeping PSN as a term everywhere, but they will also phase that out so... who knows.
This doesn't make sense to me. PSN is one of the biggest online networks/digital marketplaces in the world. Why change what's not broken?
This is so unnecessary.
I'll never stop saying PSN
Calling the "network" PS Plus doesn't make any sense to me...
Why?
My guess is probably something to do with (a.) the name maybe sounding too “early 2010s” to the higher ups at Sony, or (b.) the network name’s association to multiple major data breaches.
Lol..just lol
