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Turn your PS5 into a colorful throwback with these translucent faceplates

By Tomas Franzese June 14, 2023

Dbrand is back with new console covers, or as it calls them “darkplates,” for PlayStation 5 consoles. These new Retro Darkplates are supposed to be throwbacks that mimic the colors of translucent Nintendo 64 systems.

Orange Dbrand retro darkplates for PlayStation 5. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

This announcement marks the accessory manufacturer’s grand return to making console covers for the PS5. Dbrand previously sold PS5 darkplates during the system’s first year on the market, but Sony threatened legal action against the company. After that, Dbrand said at the time that it was forced to “submit to the terrorists’ demands” and stopped selling darkplates. Sony ended up releasing colored console covers of its own in 2022. Clearly, Dbrand is now confident enough again in its product (or found a legal loophole) to start selling these darkplates for the PS5, and decided to base them on some of its viral social media posts.

These new darkplates come in four N64-inspired colors: Atomic Purple, Ice Blue, Fire Orange, and Smoke Black. The side panels are translucent, while Dbrand also provides a cover for the black center bar on the PS5, which makes it look like it’s translucent as it shows an image of the system’s innards. If you choose to buy a Retro Darkplates kit, you’ll get one Retro Darkplate set, one hue-matched retro middle and bottom skin, three left light strips, three right light strips, and a microfiber cloth.

Purple Dbrand retro darkplates for the PlayStation 5. — Dbrand

The Retro Darkplates are now available for $100 on Dbrand’s website, discounted from what will eventually be a standard price of $124. You can get them for both the standard PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition.

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Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

Gaming

PlayStation Plus is getting a major price hike following Game Pass changes

PlayStation Plus art highlighting the essential, extra, and premium tiers.

Sony confirmed that 12-month subscriptions for PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium will all see price increases alongside the reveal of September's new Essential games on the PlayStation Blog.
Starting on September 6, 12 months of PS Plus Essential goes up in price from $60 to $80, PS Plus Extra's yearly price increases from $100 to $135, and an annual subscription to PS Plus Premium will rise from $120 to $160.

Sony says it needs to increase the price of all three versions of PlayStation Plus "to continue bringing high-quality games and value-added benefits to your PlayStation Plus subscription service" and that buying a 12-month subscription is still cheaper than subscribing to any of the shorter-term plans over the same period of time. The price hikes comes just a couple of months after Microsoft raised the price of Xbox Game Pass.
When it comes to the games PS Plus Essential subscribers can expect this month, first up is Saints Row, a 2022 reboot of an open-world crime franchise that garnered mixed reviews upon its release. Next is Generation Zero, an open-world sci-fi shooter where players fight evil machines. Finally, those who have not already purchased a version of the MMO Black Desert on PS4 can redeem Black Desert - Traveler Edition, which comes with some additional items; if you have bought a version of Black Desert, you can just redeem the Traveler Item Pack.

Gaming

Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games

Astro's Playroom booting up on the PlayStation Portal.

Sony has unveiled the price for its upcoming cloud gaming handheld, as well as an official name for the device: PlayStation Portal. However, one significant caveat to its functionality might sour people's interest in the handheld: It only supports PS4 and PS5 native games that the owner purchased.
PlayStation VR2 games can't be streamed to PlayStation Portal, which does make sense. More bafflingly, though, is the fact that the PlayStation Blog post states that "games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming are not supported." That means you shouldn't pick up PlayStation Portal expecting to stream some PS3 and PS4 games available through PlayStation Plus Premium to the device. That's certainly an odd omission when it's currently PlayStation's most notable cloud gaming effort.
Although Microsoft is more closely associated with cloud gaming, Sony beat it to releasing a dedicated cloud gaming device. PlayStation Portal was first teased as Project Q during May's PlayStation showcase, but now, a PlayStation Blog post more clearly explains what we can actually expect from the handheld. Most importantly, we learned that PlayStation Portal will cost $200, which puts it underneath the cost of a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S, and other cloud gaming devices like the Logitech G Cloud Handheld.
As for what you're getting for that price tag, it's essentially a decent screen attached to two halves of a DualSense controller. The controllers on each side share all the functionality of the DualSense, including things like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. In-between is an 8-inch LCD screen that streams games over Wi-Fi at up to a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. All in all, that's fairly solid for a cloud gaming handheld that is this cheap.
Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will have a 3.5mm audio jack, but also used the same blog post to unveil two new wireless audio options. There's the Pulse Elite wireless headset that features a retractable boom mic and a charging hanger and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds that offer similar audio quality in earbud form.
None of these products are available for preorder or have a specific release date just yet, but they are all expected to launch before the end of the year.

Gaming

Does PlayStation 5 have a web browser?

Playstation 5 with a controller.

We live in an era where basically every device in our homes can connect to the internet in some way, and most of them can provide in-depth searching through apps and web browsers. The previous generation of consoles was included in this modern experience, and even the Xbox Series X features full-fledged web browsing – but for those who have purchased a PlayStation 5, the situation is a little bit more complicated.
Does the PS5 have a web browser?
The PS5 does not have a traditional web browser in the way that the PS4 did, meaning users can't quickly pull up websites and surf the net with ease. This is no doubt a frustrating omission for those used to accessing the web from their previous consoles, and it's honestly a bit strange that Sony chose to leave out such a useful feature. However, while you may not be able to pull up a browser from your main menu, there is technically a workaround to gain access to an extremely limited web browser by finagling with the Twitter linking function in your settings, but it's an awful lot of trouble to go through for something that doesn't really function in a way that users can actually benefit from.

Unfortunately, Sony doesn't seem to want to add an official web browser app to the PS5, as the company has expressed on various occasions that it doesn't feel that such functionality is important for gaming consoles. So, if you're in the PlayStation ecosystem, it appears that your web browsing will have to continue exclusively on your old PS4. It's a bummer, but hey, maybe you could try getting one of those refrigerators with web functionality.