Fans who didn't like the PS5's white faceplates can purchase custom black "Darkplates" from dbrand—well, they could anyways. Sony has threatened legal action against dbrand for selling its PS5 faceplates, and the company has removed them from its store.

This has been a development for some time, with dbrand challenging Sony when it originally launched the Darkplates back earlier this year. The majority of the marketing for the Darkplates was at the expense of Sony, with numerous references to the legality of dbrand's endeavor, and that it was fixing Sony's "monumental achievement in bad design." Other custom faceplate companies like CMP Shells were threatened with similar legal action by Sony around the launch of the PS5, but it appears this one is still selling faceplates. It is generally not too difficult to actually change out the PS5's faceplates, so the legal actions against the third-party retailers lead many to think Sony would be releasing official ones at some point this year.

RELATED: Fan-Made PS5 Faceplate Company Rebrands after Sony Complains

Dbrand has officially pulled its custom PS5 faceplates from its online store following a cease and desist from Sony. The announcement comes from the official dbrand Reddit account in a threat titled, "Darkplates are dead. Thanks, Sony." In the long post, dbrand explains the contents of the cease and desist from Sony's legal representatives, it claiming drand was infringing on the intellectual property of Sony through dbrand's sale of Darkplates. Interestingly though, according to dbrand, no patents of Sony's protecting the PS5's design were cited in the letter, just that patents were pending in "jurisdictions around the world."

ps5 darkplate

Sony's threat of legal action comes towards the end of the letter, displaying just how aware it is of dbrand's pursuits. Dbrand quotes the phrase from the letter which reads, "Notwithstanding [Sony]'s serious concerns about dbrand’s conduct and despite your company’s adoption of the tagline 'Go ahead, sue us.' – presumably with [Sony] in mind – [Sony] would like to offer dbrand the courtesy of resolving this matter without the initiation of formal legal action." The letter calls back to the marketing of the Darkplates that demonstrated dbrand's confidence in launching them, but makes clear also that Sony would prefer not to go into a legal battle over this. Sony received a class action lawsuit over drift in the PS5's DualSense controller earlier this year.

It may seem like Sony has the edge in this circumstance, but legally, it is much more murky than at first glance. Dbrand's product was obviously based on the design of the PS5, and normally, Sony makes arrangements with third-party retailers to make accessories for its products, whether its distinct controllers, charging stations, or headsets. However, as Sony does not yet have patents for the PS5's design, and was basing its claims on the successful image of the PS5, both parties are not on firm ground legally. With that said, it is probably for the best that dbrand removed its PS5 Darkplates, but hopefully that means a similar official product is on the way.

MORE: New PS5 Console Model May Actually Be Better Than the Original

Source: Reddit/dbrand