Sony may be about to launch a range of official faceplates for its PS5 console after a new patent filing has been granted that points to covers and skins.
There’s still some uncertainty, as Sony has yet to officially announce any such customisation options, and the patent listing itself (as spotted by VGC) doesn’t specify PS5. Instead, it is titled simply ‘Cover for Electronic Device’ and described as an “ornamental design for a cover for an electronic device”.
However, diagrams provided do show the PS5’s faceplates, split into two pieces replicating the shape of the white casing on the retail model. More specifically, the patents show the casing design of the disc-based PS5 console, rather than the all-digital edition that lacks a 4K UHD drive.
It bears remembering that the existence of a patent doesn’t always result in a final product being released – sometimes companies merely secure patents for copyright or to protect other aspects of a property.
PS5 faceplates have become a surprisingly complex saga though. With no official ones available at or since launch, owners lucky enough to secure a console have had no real way to customise them. As a result, third party companies rose to fill the void. One, Dbrand, infamously told Sony to “go ahead, sue us” over its unlicensed plates – which Sony promptly did.
Days after that, on October 19, Dbrand fired back with a modified range of faceplates that it said were a “checkmate” to Sony’s lawyers because they altered the design with added vents that supposedly combatted the PS5’s “wildly inefficient thermal design”.
If this latest move does point toward Sony being about to launch its own official range of faceplates for PS5, then it will have been a long time coming – the patent was filed in November 2020 before being granted on November 16, 2021. It’s perhaps unlikely anything will be on store shelves before the holidays, but PS5 owners looking to show some flair will likely welcome this development.
Elsewhere, rats named after original Doom creators John Romero, John Carmack, and Tom Hall have been taught how to play Doom itself. The experiment involved building a custom VR rig for rodents and training the rats to navigate the ‘Entryway’ map from Doom II, rewarding them with sugar water or food for completing the course and shooting demons.
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