CustomizeMyPlates, formerly known as PlateStation5, has returned to work. This time, the company is using GoFundMe to bring back its custom faceplates after it cancelled all preorders and ceased operations due to a legal threat from Sony.
Video Games Chronicle reported that the status of CustomizeMyPlates’ legal challenges is not known. Sony had previously told the company that its intellectual property extended to faceplates and demanded that their production be ceased. CustomizeMyPlates now plans to create a petition “lobbying Sony to authorize us to make the plates.”
Speaking to VGC on condition of anonymity, a “major” third-party peripheral company said that crowdfunding would make legal matters a little more complicated for Sony, and it looks like it won’t be able to stop CustomizeMyPlates from selling the faceplates after all.
“My guess is that Sony won’t be able to control this in the long run,” said the spokesperson. “There will be tons of companies making these faceplates and Sony will be powerless to stop them. If we look at something like a controller, Sony can reasonably battle unofficial third parties by updating the console firmware and blocking such knock offs, but a faceplate? There’s not much they can do in the long run. Sony can’t stop them making bits of plastic that just happen to fit their system.”
How Sony will respond to this development remains to be seen. For now, the defiant company will go ahead as planned.
Will our readers buy the custom faceplates if they go on sale?
[Source: VGC]
