Leaked images from a factory in China have shown off a PS5 with what appears to be detachable faceplates, hinting that you’ll be able to change the default ones if you wish to customise Sony’s next-generation console.
The photos come courtesy of Wario64 on Twitter, and show how the plates will seemingly fit onto the main body of the PS5 as attachments rather then glued-on plates. This seems to track with Sony’s previous statement that the PS5 will be highly customisable.
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We can’t verify the source of these photos, so we’ll need to take them with a shot of scepticism. But the faceplates in the photos do seem to match rather closely to the design of the PS5.
Some pics of the PlayStation 5 shell (added official PS5 photo for comparison) https://t.co/hBwmwoNOQd pic.twitter.com/IIhxJljmS3July 27, 2020
As such, if you don’t like the white and black two-tone color scheme of the standard PS5, this leak suggests you’ll be able to opt for different color faceplates. Whether they’ll be supplied by Sony or left to third-party ‘aftermarket' peripheral makers has yet to be seen. But they do pave the way for custom PS5 models to be created alongside new big-hitting games, say God of War 5.
However, interchangeable faceplates don’t mean the PS5’s overall design can be changed. That design has divided the ranks at Tom’s Guide, with some applauding Sony’s decision to go with a games console that looks rather different to anything else out there, and others deriding it for looking like an over-designed and over-sized router.
The PS5 certainly avoids the monolithic look of the Xbox Series X, which is essentially an upright rectangular box; there’s logic to the design though as Microsoft has a particular cooling system to keep its 12 teraflop machine cool. Sony’s 10.28 teraflop console also looks to be built around clever cooling, only it’s a little more ostentatious.
We’ll have to wait until “Holiday 2020”, a.k.a. November time, before we get a real idea of what the consoles look like in the metaphorical flesh. Even if they look a bit dumb, the performance and capabilities they promise are pretty tantalising.
