The PS5 Pro launch is still over a week away, but fans have already made an annoying discovery: the new console won’t work with players’ existing custom cover plates. Sony will eventually sell new ones, but those won’t be available until sometime in the future.
This weird wrinkle was uncovered by a Reddit user who shared it in a post that has since gone viral on the PlayStation subreddit. “I had some Cobalt blue plates so I decided to try them out on the Pro and I can confirm the bottom plates match the slim however the top plates do not match because while they’re physically the same size the teeth that connect to the system are in slightly different places,” they wrote.
While they didn’t share an image of the PS5 Pro itself, which isn’t supposed to be officially out until November 7, they did show comparisons of the Pro and Slim plates. While the bottom plate fits, you can see where the differences in the plastic locking pieces differ between the two consoles.
“Sony made the PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro plates the exact same size and dimensions but made them have different interlocking teeth to intentionally make them not compatible even though they are exactly the same,” tweeted YouTuber Jake Randall. “RIP everyone saying the only difference was the size of the racing stripe,” responded a commenter. “This was posted three weeks ago and everyone was in denial.”
The PlayStation community had been debating whether or not the plates would be a match for weeks due to imprecise messaging from the PlayStation Blog post revealing the PS5 Pro. An image showing console cover compatibility both seemed like definitive proof the Slim covers wouldn’t work but also appeared like too ridiculous of a move for everyone to be convinced.
Sony confirmed the veracity of the Reddit post’s discovery today, and that console covers compatible with the PS5 Pro will be sold eventually, just not in time for launch. “PS5 console covers are not compatible with PS5 Pro,” the representative for the company told IGN. “However, players will be able to swap out different console covers for PS5 Pro when they become available in the future.”
The confirmation will be especially heartbreaking for fans who managed to snag a 30th Anniversary PS5 slim but not the incredibly rare Pro model. Some were hoping they could still swap the PS1-style covers onto the Pro. Nope!