The upcoming Sony PlayStation 5 (PS5) is one of the most anticipated next-generation consoles gamers have been waiting for and it is set to hit retail stores in select markets this month. Naturally, there are some companies looking to profit from the initial wave of enthusiastic PS5 buyers. Now, a peripheral company selling custom PS5 faceplates has landed itself in legal hot water with Sony and has been forced to pull the product and cancel all of its orders.
According to a report from VGC, a United Kingdom (UK)-based company, previously known as PlateStation5.com, had been forced to rebrand to CustomizeMyPlates.com after receiving a complaint from Sony over trademark infringements. The company explained in an email that it had done its due diligence before it launched and thought that since Sony only had pending patents on the faceplates that there would be no problem.
However, Sony was not done as its lawyers told CustomizeMyPlates that Sony’s intellectual property extended to the faceplates themselves. If they continued to sell and distribute the custom-made faceplates in any country, Sony would take them to court.
This led to the peripheral maker cancelled and refunded all its faceplate orders worldwide as it sought to avoid a legal battle with the Japanese tech giant.
Before it stopped selling the faceplates, the company was taking orders for unofficial PS5 faceplates in a variety of different colours for USD39.99 (~RM166) each. At the time, it promised to ship the product to its customers within two weeks of the console’s launch date.
A quick check on their website showed that the company sold more than just faceplates as it also listed gaming chairs as well as charging stands for game controllers and consoles among its products.
The company said it was working with manufacturers in the UK and China to create the faceplates that it claimed were made from “premium industry standard plastic” that were based on the PS5’s official dimensions.
In early October, Sony released a teardown video that demonstrated how the white panels on both side of the console can easily be removed by lifting and sliding them off. Since then, Sony has not announced any other variation of the PS5 apart from the standard white design. It has also not committed to releasing accessories like faceplates in the future.
It is evident that not everyone is digging the new white colour scheme that Sony introduced. Evidently, some PlayStation fans are hoping for a black version of the PS5, a return to the classic colour scheme used in previous consoles dating back to the PS2.
Sony has confirmed that the PS5 will be sold in select markets like the U.S. and Japan this month on 12 November and later to the rest of the world including Asia on 19 November. The company also revealed that the PS5 Digital Edition will cost USD 399.99 (~RM1,652) while PS5 with an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive will retail for USD 499.99 (~RM2,065).
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