Heads up Playstation 3 owners, your PSN online account is undergoing a big change. Not really- actually just a name change, but a big, ugly one at that. On February 8th, Sony will change all existing “PSN” accounts to “Sony Entertainment Network” accounts, or SEN. This is Sony’s attempt to migrate all previous Sony Qriocity accounts and the like into the unifying SEN account for all things Sony, starting with the PS3 and PS Vita. Sony informed customers in an email:

“For general purposes, this account change is a change in name only. Your username or password will not change, nor are we asking you to change them”

Gee, thanks Sony! In your attempt to unify all of your services that no one uses, now we have to say “SEN names”? That just doesn’t sound right. I can see it now: “hey bro, what’s your SEN name?” It just doesn’t have the same ring to it as ‘PSN’ does.

“This transition is based on Sony’s goal to enhance its unique digital entertainment offering. As a series of these activities Sony started last September, PlayStation Network will be aligned with Sony Entertainment Network. This helps us get closer to our goal of establishing a global comprehensive network platform of services across games, movies, music and more, all accessible from one convenient account.”

Interestingly enough, this isn’t the case for the current-gen PSP, which will remain in the past, forever cursed with a PSN account. This just may be because Sony is phasing out the PSP in favor of the Vita, and one less device linked to these accounts will probably help things move forward quicker.

In all seriousness, this was inevitable. With all the big companies moving to create their own individual consumer media services, this had to happen eventually. Maybe now, with such an ugly name like ‘SEN’, the universal acceptance and popularity of just using the word ‘gamertag’ will grow.