[UPDATE: The name-change feature is now available — 11 April 2019. The ID change comes with a warning, though. Players who do decide change their online names may encounter a few issues ranging from minor to critical on certain games (see the list here). So change your ID at your own risk.]
ORIGINAL STORY: Tempted to change your name? You can choose to change everything from your Twitter handle to your actual name on your ID book, but PlayStation players haven’t been able to change their gamer-tags since its inception. And that’s changing.
Finally, this long-awaited feature is launching in beta soon, but the beta is limited to members of the PlayStation Preview Program. Don’t stress though, because there is a full rollout planned for the rest of y’all in 2019.
The new feature should make it possible PS players to fix the mistakes of their youth. Like when most of us thought a PSN ID like ‘x^^BaDGirLL^^x’ or ‘MarsMannetjie**’ was cool. It’s about time that PS gamers get to change their online persona without losing their entire account and friends list, so we’re thrilled at this news.
Changing an ID will give users the option to display their old username alongside their new one, so friends can still recognise who they are. But if you choose to display the old one, you won’t be able to toggle it off again later… at least not initially. Maybe that will change too, eventually.
During the testing phase, users will be able to change their ID as many times as they want, but they’ll need to consider that they will pay after the first one ($9.99 per change or $4.99 for PlayStation Plus members).
New names will also only display for games released after April 2018, as well as “a large majority of the most-played PS4 games” from before that date, according to PlayStation. The full rollout of the feature to all PS4 owners is planned for early 2019. So hang in there.
Source: PlayStation blog