Sony Now Automatically Replaces Offensive PSN IDs With Placeholders

This week, Sony finally made it possible for PlayStation users to change their PSN ID, a request players have been making for years. Ahead of the feature's broad launch to all customers, however, Sony published a long list of FAQ about the change and usernames in general. Among other things, players were warned their new name shouldn't violate the company's guidelines, and now we know what happens when someone doesn't follow that rule.READ: PlayStation ID changes go live today: What you need to know

Though users are able to choose their own PlayStation Network name, Sony has rules against including offensive terms and words. Swear words, hate speech, and other offensive words in PSN IDs used to result in an outright ban. With yesterday's arrival of ID changes comes a softening of the punishment directed at violators.

Going forward, players who choose a PlayStation Network ID that contains offensive words will instead receive a placeholder identifier that reads "TempXXXX," with each X being a random number. This placeholder will be applied automatically in cases where Sony decides the original ID is inappropriate.

The temporary identifier isn't necessarily temporary — users have the option of keeping the randomly assigned placeholder and using it as their regular ID if they prefer. Alternatively, users issued TempXXXX IDs will be prompted to choose a different PSN ID that doesn't violate Sony's Terms of Service.

Sony enabled PlayStation Network ID changes yesterday; the first name change is free, but subsequent name changes will come with a small fee. Users generally have the option of changing their ID as many times as they'd like, as well as reverting to an old identifier with few exceptions. The full PSN ID change FAQ can be found here.