Sony has flexed its legal muscle on a peripheral company selling custom PS5 faceplates, which has now been forced to cancel all its orders.
We reported that a company called PlateStation5 were selling a series of third-party colored PS5 faceplates in late October, which allowed users to customize the look of the new next-gen console. A number of styles were available for pre-order for $39.99 (around £30 / AU$55), but the company has since drawn the ire of Sony.
First, the company had to change its name and rebrand to CustomizeMyPlates following a complaint from the Japanese manufacturer, and after further threats of legal action, the custom faceplate maker has been forced to cancel all of its orders and pull the offending products from sale.
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In an email to VGC, CustomizeMyPlates explained how it believed its products were well within the means of the law, but admitted it would be “wiser” in the future.
“Before we launched, we did our due diligence and were of the opinion that because Sony only had pending patents on the faceplates there would be no problem,” CustomizeMyPlates said.
“But after only a day of our website being live, Sony’s lawyers asked us to change our name (at the time PlateStation5), due to trademark infringements. We thought this switch would be enough to keep everyone happy, and honestly were hoping so since we were already underway with our product development.
“But then Sony’s lawyers told us it was their opinion, Sony’s intellectual property extended to the faceplates, and that if we continued to sell and distribute them in any country, we would end up in court.”
The company went on to add: “This all came to light yesterday and we are now cancelling and refunding all faceplate orders worldwide… we are extremely disappointed about this but we have no other option.”
The great faceplate debate
The PS5’s two-tone color scheme has proved divisive since its initial reveal, with many fans pining for a black PS5. As the PS5’s faceplates can be removed – which you’ll need to do if you plan on adding more super-fast NVMe SSD storage – a market for custom faceplates seemed inevitable.
Whether Sony will continue to prevent third-party manufacturers from creating their own designs remains to be seen, but it looks like we’ll have to get used to the PS5 being white for a little while longer.
The PS5 releases on November 12 in select markets including the US and Japan, but the rest of the world, such as the UK, will have to wait a little longer when Sony’s next-gen system arrives on November 19.
