It’s understandable that some people dislike the look of the PlayStation 5’s color scheme as its large white side panels (faceplates) deviate from the traditional all-black approach of previous PlayStation consoles.
Sony has yet to announce whether there will be all-black variants of the PS5 sold in the future, though it stands to reason there will be. After all, Sony sold PS4 consoles in other colors like Glacier White, Gold, and Silver.
They also had special edition PS4 options including the white and black Death Stranding edition, silver God of War edition, red Spider-Man edition, navy/gold Dragon Quest XI edition, camo Call of Duty: WW2 edition, etc.
Given how easy it is to take off and swap the faceplates on the PS5, we have no doubt that there will be more customization options for the console than its predecessor both from Sony and from third-party sellers.
Speaking of third-party sellers, a few have already begun selling custom PS5 faceplates ahead of the console’s November 12 launch. It’s a little early to tell how solid these third-party faceplates will be, but it’s interesting to see them popping up before the console’s launch rather than after.
Third-Party Sellers Are Selling Custom PS5 Faceplates Ahead of Launch
We’re only a few short weeks away from the release of the PS5 on November 12. Once you have your new console in your hands, you’ll be able to enjoy games like Spider-Man Miles Morales with it, and experience the feeling of the DualSense controller.
You’ll also be able to swap out the white faceplates if you aren’t a fan of the way the console looks out of the box. In a video posted to the PlayStation YouTube channel on October 7, Yasuhiro Ootori showed just how easy it is to take apart the PS5.
The base can be quickly taken off if you want to turn the PS5 over on its side rather than displaying the console vertically. Ootori notes that the white panels can also be removed by “the users themselves” before showing what this process looks like.
All you need to do is lift each faceplate by the corner (as shown in the video) and slide them off one at a time. As you can see in the video, you’ll need to be careful while doing this to avoid bending and breaking the faceplates.
With the faceplates off, you can clean off any dust that’s accumulated inside, customize your faceplates yourselves, or purchase and install new faceplates.
Sony doesn’t have any official replacements available for purchase just yet, though we imagine they’ll at least have the base white faceplates on offer in the event you break one.
In the future, they’ll likely have faceplates with different color options outside of the base white, though they haven’t shared details about other faceplate colors that may or may not be released.
The lack of official replacement faceplates have created a nice little market for third-party sellers to offer their own, including one called PlateStation 5.
On their website, PlateStation 5 is selling pre-orders of replacement faceplates in colors that include:
- Matte Black
- Chromatic
- Cherry Red
- Indigo Blue
- Jungle Camo
Each replacement faceplate set is being sold for $39.99 (USD) with the shipping cost being free. The faceplates will be shipped out “on or before the Sony PlayStation 5 release date” and that it’ll take approximately 5-7 days to arrive (estimate puts this at November 19 through November 23) according to the site’s shipping information.
It goes without saying that we don’t endorse buying items from third-party sellers, especially items that have no users reviews for you to reference. Our personal recommendation is to wait a few weeks after the PS5 is released on November 12.
After some time has passed, you’ll begin to see feedback and reviews of third-party replacement faceplates pop up and you can use that information to make the best purchasing decision possible.
It’s always a pain when you order something only to realize it’s not what you were wanting or expecting and then have to request a refund and ship the item back to the seller.
Setting these disclaimers aside, it’s exciting to see a third-party seller like PlateStation 5 offering custom PS5 faceplates right now as it indicates there will be even more of these in the future.
It’ll also encourage Sony to release official PS5 faceplate replacements sooner rather than later as there are a number of gamers who’d prefer to purchase items like this from the manufacturer themselves as opposed to a third-party seller.
It’s a great way for Sony to make more money, that’s for sure.
Stay tuned as we’ll be posting reviews of the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 accessories once the PS5 drops on November 12. If you want us to buy and test out the PlateStation 5, reach out to us on social media and tell us which one we should get!
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Published: Oct 23, 2020 08:19 pm