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Sony Threatens Legal Action Against Custom PS5 Plate Company That Asked For It

Dbrand is no longer selling black PS5 faceplates, for now.

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After baiting Sony to sue, Dbrand has found out what happens when you play chicken with one of the world's largest tech giants. The company, which started selling black PS5 side plates earlier this year, has removed the product from its store following threats of legal action from the multimedia company.

Anyone who goes on Dbrand's site, which is packed with different skins and cases for most pieces of tech people own, will find that the store page for the company's black PS5 side plates, called Darkplates, now leads to a page filled with news articles reporting Sony's threat of legal action. Prior to the change, Dbrand's store page for Darkplates had come complete with the message, "Go ahead, sue us."

Dbrand's black PS5 faceplates are no longer available.
Dbrand's black PS5 faceplates are no longer available.

The threat, which came in the form of a cease and desist letter from Sony that was shared by The Verge, includes a request from the company to "promptly and permanently cease and take down all marketing and promotion for and cease all sales worldwide of faceplates featuring the product configuration of SIE's PS5 faceplates or any similar product configuration."

While Dbrand is complying with Sony's request, that decision isn't set in stone. In an expletive-filled post on Reddit, which ended with "In closing, f*** you and especially f*** Sony," the company stated that it would "submit to the terrorists' demands… for now." We have reached out to Sony for comment and will update the article if we get a response.

This isn't the first time Sony has taken legal action against companies producing cosmetic faceplates for its PS5. CMP Shells, which also sold faceplates for Sony's console, attracted the company's legal wrath in 2020. However, it has since been able to sell the unofficial plates thanks to a pending patent. While Sony itself hasn't indicated that it will sell alternate PS5 faceplates, the company has introduced DualSense variants complete with different color schemes.

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