PS5 Pro cases are designed to be incompatible with existing ones

The launch of the PS5 Pro is still over a week away, but fans have already made an annoying discovery: the new console doesn’t work with players’ existing custom cover plates. Sony will eventually sell new models, but these won’t be available until sometime in the future.

This strange wrinkle was discovered 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 that the bottom plates match the slim ones but the top plates don’t because they are physically the same size but the teeth, that are connected to the system are in slightly different locations,” they wrote.

While they didn’t share an image of the PS5 Pro itself, which isn’t officially due out until November 7th, they did show comparisons of the Pro and Slim slabs. While the base plate fits, you can see the differences in the plastic locking pieces between the two consoles.

“Sony made the PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro plates the exact same size and dimensions, but gave them different interlocking teeth to intentionally make them incompatible even though they are exactly the same.” tweeted

YouTuber Jake Randall. “RIP everyone says the only difference is the size of the racing stripe,” one commenter responded. “This was posted three weeks ago and everyone denied it.”

The PlayStation community had been debating for weeks whether the panels would fit together or not, as the PlayStation Blog post unveiling the PS5 Pro provided inaccurate news. An image showing the compatibility of both console cases seemed to be clear evidence that the slim cases wouldn’t work but it also seemed too ridiculous a move to convince him.

Sony today confirmed the veracity of the Reddit post’s discovery and that console cases compatible with the PS5 Pro will be sold at some point, but not in time for launch. “PS5 console cases are not compatible with PS5 Pro,” the company representative said told IGN. “However, players will have the option to exchange various console cases for PS5 Pro as they become available in the future.”

For fans, the confirmation will be particularly heartbreaking who managed to snag a 30th anniversary PS5 Slim but not the incredibly rare Pro model. Some hoped they could still swap out the PS1-style cases for the Pro. No!