Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
After Sony revealed that the PlayStation 5’s side plates are removable, it didn’t take long for websites to spring up offering third-party custom options for color and design swaps on the PS5’s sidings. It seems like a no-brainer for this to be a thing, but it seems Sony isn’t so ready to let it happen. Various legal actions from the PS5 maker have forced third-party entities to offer refunds and shift strategies or shut down and rebrand entirely.
It was back on October 23, 2020 reports of several third-party storefronts popping up arose, such as PlateStation, to offer custom PlayStation 5 side plate options. This was following Sony’s official teardown video that showcased the full disassembly of the PS5 down to its base components. That video showed that the side plates on the PS5 could be removed and reattached with relative ease, and it didn’t take long for these third-party vendors to pop up soon after to try to get their piece of the pie. A couple weeks later, however, the PlateStation website has been shut down entirely, with the company rebranding to Customize My Plates, as well as canceling orders and offering full refunds on custom PS5 plate orders.
Sony’s legal team has been on the move, according to spokespersons of Customize My Plates in a recent correspondence with IGN. Apparently, the patent and intellectual property laws associated with attempting to sell custom plates for the PS5 are too much legal trouble for a small manufacturer to navigate without issue of copyright infringement. Changing its company name from PlateStation wasn’t enough to satisfy Sony and following the issue, Customize My Plates has found itself issuing cancellations of all orders and refunds to all customers.
Custom plates for the PS5 still seem like an inevitable market, nonetheless. The PS5 is kind of an eyesore in its out-of-box white-plated form, but it would appear that anyone looking to crack that market open will have to be within Sony’s good graces to get things moving. Here’s hoping reasonable options come soon.