Sony has confirmed to Kotaku that players will have the option to be identified with their real names when on day one of PlayStation 4's release. To clarify, it is noted not to be mandatory and you can change how you want to be identified at any time.
It was recently reported that Microsoft would be delaying a smilar feature and it would not be available when the Xbox One comes out.
It's interesting to see if players would quickly opt to using their real names, or if it would take a while for users to fully shed their anonymity. Both Microsoft and Sony have tailored their next-generation consoles to gamers' social needs. It remains to be seen if this would be an effective strategy for the next generations of consoles and services to come.
The PS4 will be released in North America on November 15th.