Sony’s response suggests sympathy, but no action to remedy the ban. As you can see below, those number at least 9,800. He also reminded Sony that there are many PSN IDs with the name Jihad. In order to support his case, Al-Mofadda sent a copy of his passport to Sony as evidence of his legal name.
He submitted a list, at which point he says that Sony rescinded the offer. While average users can’t change their PSN ID, Sony did offer Al-Mofadda the option to select another one due to his longstanding membership. Its True people! If a SONY employee feels like BANNING you, you loose access to your Digital Assets! Even Offline!!! /SniJpr6m8q It also has locked him out from use of his purchased content offline. This, of course, disables any use of online services. In recent years, the term has been associated with some terror groups.ĭespite his years of membership, Sony banned Al-Mofadda yesterday.
The name directly translates as “struggling or striving” (typically toward a goal that is noble and good). His PSN ID, iJihad, is directly taken from his given name (which I verified via his passport). Jihad Khalid Al-Mofadda has been a PlayStation Network member for more than five years, with his first trophy earned in 2010. People outgrow their childhood handles, words take on new meanings over time, and sometimes your given name is “Jihad.” One of the most common requests since the PSN’s inception is the ability to change user names. After more than five years of play on that PSN ID, Al-Mofadda will have to start over with friends and trophy progress. Until Sony devises a method to allow users to change their PSN IDs, this is a "service" that seems to only be offered to those targeted. It seems that Sony is simply creating a new account for Al-Mofadda and transferring his licenses. And they said their name changing system has many issues!(What a nice thing to hear!) I will loose all my friends, might be trophies also and any social appearance or interactions! I hope fellow Gamers don't have to go to the media to get their service handled properly!" "Also said I still cannot keep my actual name though. I just got of the phone from Playstation UK, they re-offered changing the name and apologised," Al-Mofadda told me via email. Unfortunately, the company is still making him change his name, which is likely to reset trophy progress, wipe social connections, and essentially reset him to zero but with his purchased content. Update: After Jihad Al-Mofadda's situation took Reddit by storm and got a small signal boost from the media, Sony has stepped in to offer a solution.