Sony’s legal team has officially ended the hopes and dreams of the company behind PlateStation5.com, a UK-based site that was hawking customizable plates for the next-gen console.
The site began taking orders for customizable plates shortly after Sony’s PlayStation 5 teardown video hit the web and revealed that they could be removed and switched for aesthetic purposes, but the Japanese giant’s lawyers quickly pounced with legal complaints that forced PlateStation 5 to rebrand itself into something less infringing (i.e., CustomizeMyPlates.com).
That didn’t satisfy Sony, though, who has now decided that these customizable plates can’t be sold at all because they breach intellectual property rights.
To avoid getting sued into oblivion, PlateStation5.com’s owners are refunding all previous orders and shifting to a more legal means of business, such as console skins.
“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 told Video Games Chronicle via email.
“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.”
“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.”
We’re guessing that Sony has plans to sell first-party plates of its own, which is great news in light of the popular sentiment that the PlayStation 5 is a giant eyesore. Customizable plates based on God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and other hit franchises are practically a given.
This level of customization hearkens back to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, which features swappable faceplates.