Earlier this year, Canadian company dbrand began selling matte black shells for Sony's PS5 console, calling them "Darkplates." Now, dbrand has announced that it will remove Darkplates from sale after receiving a cease and desist letter from Sony Interactive Entertainment. Dbrand made the announcement in an article on its subreddit, inviting Redditors to visit the product page for the product that it no longer offers Darkplates for sale. In the rest of the post, dbrand cites the cease and desist letter which notes that Sony is challenging the way Darkplates "answer themselves." "Protected Product Design" as the dbrand version of the PS button icons etched inside the plates. The letter ends with Sony requesting that dbrand "immediately and permanently stop and terminate all marketing and promotion and cease any and all worldwide sales of PS5 headstock product configuration covers by SIE or any product configuration related, including, among many others, any and all end caps currently on sale on dbrand.com Dbrand also stated in the blog post that "a few months after this original Cease & Desist", Sony's legal team notified him that "a patent has been issued in Canada purporting to cover the shape of the side panels of the PS 5. Surely it's not a huge surprise that Sony sent out this cease and desist letter. In the month of October two In fact, when dbrand itself announced its Darkplate line back in February, it was quite outstanding with the motto "Go ahead, chase us." Dbrand concludes his post by saying he's complying with Sony's request, though he adds "for now" in italics, suggesting this may not be the last we hear about.
Analysis: the attractant of replacement plates
With its size and bright white casing, there's no denying that the PS5 tends to stand out in an entertainment center. While there are plenty of PS5 owners who love this aspect of the console, for those who don't, swapping out their motherboards is an easy path to bliss. And really simple is the key word here: instructions on how to remove the PS5 faceplates can be found in Sony's own console teardown video. TechRadar's John McCann took a look at replacing the motherboards on his PS5 and found the whole process quite easy. The simplicity with which this can be done has led many to believe that Sony is planning to launch its official front covers. Sony's recent announcement of 2 new DualSense colors (Cosmic Red and Midnight Black) and a Midnight Black Pulse 3D wireless headset shows that this generation is not reluctant for a splash of colour. Even the last generation released a range of official PS4 custom skins. With that in mind, an official line of PS5 head covers doesn't seem entirely unique. Indeed, dbrand itself speculates in its Reddit post that proprietary end caps could be Sony's next step. But Sony itself has not said anything and we cannot be sure until something official is confirmed. However, it is understandable that worrying about the possibility of making modifications to a PS5 is a luxury reserved for those who actually have one in their hands. It's still hard to locate stock in the midst of ongoing shortages, but we regularly keep track of retailer stock on TechRadar. US readers still looking for a console can follow our dedicated PS5 restock tracker, like TechRadar US editor-in-chief Matt Swider, who has had tremendous success helping people keep consoles safe. .