PS4 players will soon be waving goodbye to 2017, a year that has continued the meteoric rise of the PlayStation 4.
This year sales for the PS4 have hit the staggering landmark of 70million, meaning the PlayStation 4 is closing in on the PS3’s lifetime sales.
While the PS4 has also seen its games list grow stronger with the release of top exclusives like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Persona 5 and Uncharted: Lost Legacy.
With another successful year for the PS4 drawing to a close, fans will surely be looking towards 2018 to see what the new year has in store.
And PlayStation 4 fans could be set to get one much requested feature for the PS4, which they have been demanding for years.
PS4 fans could finally be getting the option to change their username on the PlayStation Network (PSN) in 2018.
Sony Interactive Entertainment America executive Shawn Layden teased the potential new feature in a recent interview, DailyStar.co.uk reported.
Speaking with Greg Miller after the PlayStation Experience 2017 keynote, Layden said Sony were looking into letting PSN users change their ID.
He said: “The elves at the North Pole have been working on it.
“Let me put it this way: I hope we’ll see events occur so that you don’t have to ask me that question next PSX.”
Layden also said enabling this feature was “more complex than you think”, potentially explaining why it’s taken so long to enforce.
Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida back in 2015 poured cold water on the idea of PSN users being able to change their ID.
He said: “We are aware that lots of people are asking for the feature and our engineers have been looking into what they can do.
“As soon as we know, we’ll let you know. But as of today, we don’t ever know if we can ever do it properly.”
The news comes as one industry analyst has tipped the PlayStation 4 to sell over 100million consoles.
Lewis Ward, IDC research director for gaming and VR/AR, said he expects the PS4 to hit that sales milestone in 2019.
Speaking to Gaming Bolt, Ward also said that he expects the PS5 and the next-gen Xbox One to have release dates in 2021.
If those predictions are true, it would mean PS4 fans still have three more years left in the console’s lifecycle.
It would also mean the PS4 would have a lifetime of eight years – a year more than its predecessor the PS3.
Ward said: “Right now I think PS5 and the next-gen Xbox will arrive in 2021, but that’s really just a tentative placeholder in my forecast.”
Speaking about whether the PS4 will hit the 100million units sales milestone, he added: “I think the PS4 will probably get there in 2019.”
The PS4 is already the sixth best selling home console of all time, and the 10th best selling console ever.
If it manages to sell over 100million consoles, it will be in very illustrious company.
The Wii, original PlayStation, Game Boy / Game Boy Color, Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2 all broke the 100million units sold barrier.
The PS2 is the best selling console ever, selling 155million units, with the Nintendo DS not far behind on 154.02million units sold.