Sony has announced plans to unify all of their customers' accounts, including PlayStation and Sony Mobile accounts, under a single PlayStation Network account. The entertainment and electronics conglomerate currently boasts a wide variety of services, ranging from PlayStation Music to the Xperia Store.
As the release of next-generation consoles quickly approaches, both Sony and Microsoft are doing their best to draw in customers. Sony is taking various steps towards making the PlayStation 5 experience consistent with the PlayStation 4, ensuring a smooth transition to next-gen. The new PlayStation Plus Collection is being touted as an improved replacement for PlayStation Now, with popular new games available to download rather than stream. Backwards compatibility is also a big selling point for the PlayStation 5, since that feature was absent in Sony's previous two consoles. With only ten PS4 games unavailable on PS5, and the possibility of that list shrinking, Sony fans can enjoy all of last-gen's classics on the next-gen hardware.
Now, Sony Rewards has revealed that the company will be offering one single account to control all Sony Group services. There are numerous services under this umbrella, including PlayStation services like PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Music and PlayStation Video. However, various other Sony services will fall under this unified umbrella as well, such as Xperia mobile services and the Sony Electronics community. Those who currently have several different accounts can merge them all, or those that only have a PlayStation Network account can use that log-in to access the other services.
To prepare for the move to next-gen, Sony has made several other recent changes to PlayStation Network. The PlayStation Trophy system is evolving, adding new icons on PS5 and a wider, overhauled leveling system. These relatively small changes will improve the tried-and-true Trophy system for the future. It has also been announced that Sony will unify the controller inputs across American and Japanese games, bringing an end to years of confusion between the "confirm" and "cancel" buttons.
With the generational switch rapidly approaching, Sony has the opportunity to create a number of quality-of-life improvements for their PlayStation brand. Combining users' multiple separate accounts into one single PlayStation account will go a long way towards strengthening their brand's identity. Unifying controller inputs and updating the Trophy system are also examples of these small quality-of-life changes being implemented by Sony. In the coming battle against Microsoft and the Xbox Series X, now is the time for Sony to make their customers digital footprint as simple and accessible as possible to maintain its current-gen lead.
Source: Sony Rewards