Insider Gaming is reporting that it’s seen emailed plans by Sony to abandon the “PlayStation Network” and “PSN” brands by the end of the summer. According to the report, by September 2026 PSN will become a thing of the past, in what’s described as a “purely visual” change.
It seems this is primarily an exercise in tidying up, trying to remove one of PlayStation’s many brands that perhaps don’t really make a lot of sense to customers. The PlayStation Network is the term used for Sony’s online gaming offerings (including the PlayStation Store), first used in 2006 for the PS3, before spreading across a range of Sony hardware, and was used to distinguish between the activities that took place using the internet and those that occured when just sticking a Blu-ray disc into a drive. Today, it’s honestly a bit of a confusing delineation in a gaming world where pretty much everything is “online” in some form, and the distinction is barely perceivable.
Sony’s internal email reflects the same thoughts, explaining that the de-branding will not cause any technical changes. “To simplify and unify branding, the terms ‘PlayStation Network’ and ‘PSN’ will be phased out across all SIE assets by September 2026,” Insider quotes. “All features currently associated with PSN, including core network features such as friends, multiplayer, and trophies, will remain unaffected and available to players.”
PlayStation Lifestyle has noticed this process may have already begun, spotting that in the Network options on the PS5 the term “PlayStation Network” has been replaced with just “PlayStation” and the PSN logo nixed from the menu, and that the PlayStation Network Status page is now simply “PlayStation Status.”
It all seems smart enough. It’s reasonable to assume most PlayStation users associate the PlayStation Plus brand with being able to play games online and in multiplayer, while no one at all would ever consider access to a digital store as something that even needs a label. “PSN” has been a part of our lexicon for so long that it feels strange that it won’t be around any more, but the chances are we’ll only notice it’s gone when someone reminds us in around November.
Of course, it would be far better if we existed on the timeline where none of Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo had considered online gaming to be something they could monetize with paywalls and branding. But despite the PC providing no such barriers, it seems that part’s not going anyway any time soon.