Estate planning as a PlayStation account holder

An account for PlayStation spans PS5, PS4, and PS VR. It holds a digital game library (PlayStation Store purchases), a PlayStation Plus subscription (cloud saves, monthly games, game catalog), PlayStation Store Wallet funds, trophies and profile data, PlayStation Stars rewards (discontinuing November 2, 2026), and purchased movies and TV shows (PlayStation Store discontinued new movie and TV purchases and rentals on August 31, 2021; previously purchased content remains accessible to the original account). Sony now brands the agreement and the account as "PlayStation" rather than "PlayStation Network"; the current Terms of Service, last revised April 2026, no longer use the term PSN.

Under PlayStation's terms, accounts are not property of the account holder and are forfeited when the account closes at death. No estate planning document—will, trust, or otherwise—can override this forfeiture.

What happens at death

PlayStation has no published bereavement or estate process. No dedicated form, support article, or documented path exists for deceased account holders, and the PlayStation Terms of Service do not address death, inheritance, or estate at all. The ToS treats all content as a license to the individual account holder, not property: Section 10.2 licenses content on a "non-exclusive and revocable" basis for "personal, private, non-transferable, non-commercial, limited use," and Section 8.13 provides that Virtual Items "may not be sold, transferred, or redeemed for real money or items of value." Section 8.1 adds that "If you delete or close your Account, you may lose access to and use of any purchased Content." Wallet funds are walled off separately by Section 7.3: "FUNDS ADDED TO THE PLAYSTATION STORE WALLET ARE NON-REFUNDABLE AND NON-TRANSFERABLE EXCEPT WHERE THE LAW REQUIRES," and - a sentence added since the prior verification - "WALLET FUNDS THAT ARE DEEMED ABANDONED OR UNUSED BY LAW WILL NOT BE RETURNED OR RESTORED." On account termination, Section 12.3 states in all caps that "UPON TERMINATION OF YOUR ACCOUNT (OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHILD ACCOUNT) FOR ANY REASON, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A REFUND FOR ITEMS (INCLUDING SUBSCRIPTIONS, VIRTUAL ITEMS, AND PRE-PAID PRODUCTS OR SERVICES), VALUE ACCUMULATED ON IN-GAME ITEMS OR ANY UNUSED BALANCE IN YOUR WALLET, EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY LAW OR AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED IN THIS AGREEMENT," and that any "game ranking, scores, trophies, Virtual Items, including virtual currency balances (whether earned or purchased), subscriptions, or other information saved on, or requiring connection to our Services will not be retained or accessible." Section 13 (Maintenance and Upgrades) also reserves Sony's right to "delete player account data that we determine to have been dormant," without specifying a timeframe. One narrow exception runs the other way: Section 12.4 provides that where Sony permits an associated Child Account to remain open after a Family Manager Account is terminated, "the Child Accounts will be permitted to use the remaining funds in your Wallet subject to any limits that were put in place prior to your Account termination."

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